Ark developer in Kentucky seeking lost tax incentive
Tourismofficials say evangelical park shouldn’t get funds
A wooden rib that is part of a ship based on the story of Noah’s ark is raised into place Thursday in Williamstown, Kentucky. The Ark Encounter will be a religious tourist attraction when it opens next year.
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Lawyers for a Christian ministry building a Noah’s ark theme park said Wednesday that Kentucky officials violated First Amendment religious protections when they denied the project a tax incentive worth millions.
Answers in Genesis, developer of the 510-foot wooden ark in central Kentucky, is suing to get back into the tourism incentive program, which could be worth about $18 million over 10 years.
The group’s lawyers argued Wednesday in federal court in Frankfort that they should not face different treatment for the incentive just because the attraction would have religious themes.
Tourism officials “took this reflexive, kind of allergic reaction to religion” when it kicked the ark project out of the tax incentive program in December, said Mike Johnson, a lawyer for Answers in Genesis. The incentive would rebate a portion of the sales tax taken in by the Ark Encounter theme park after it opens.
Kentucky tourism officials have said the massive wooden ark would be an evangelism tool and shouldn’t receive tax dollars.
“They want all comers to believe what they believe — which is fine — but we don’t have to fund it,” said Virginia Snell, a Louisville lawyer representing the state in the case.
The state had initially approved the incentive and even celebrated the theme park proposal a few years ago. But state authorities reversed course last year after seeing statements from website postings and investor meetings that indicated the park would “be an extension of (Answers in Genesis’) ministry.”
The incentive allows major tourism projects in Kentucky to recover 25 percent of development costs through sales tax rebates. It has been awarded to bourbon distilleries, hotels and a speedway that hosts a NASCAR race.
The state wants U.S. District Judge Greg Van Tatenhove to dismiss the lawsuit.
Van Tatenhove noted during a hearing Wednesday that the state’s tourism incentive is “content neutral,” meaning it doesn’t matter if an applicant for the sales tax rebate has a religious purpose.
“There is a public purpose here, and it’s tourism,” said Van Tatenhove, whose ruling in the case is expected at a later date.
Construction on the ark is underway.