Freakazoid Failure Fucking Over Kentucky Taxpayers

Not just predictable, but predictED by many of us who screamed bloody murder about $18 million in state tax dollars and millions more in local tax dollars going unconstitutionally to a creationist boondoggle.

Now the locals who stupidly put their faith in grifters touting an invisible sky wizard are reaping what they sowed.

I'd laugh, except that it's my tax dollars they are stealing.

Linda Blackford at the Herald

Plants’ partner, Matt Griffith, moved to Williamstown from West Virginia last September, when he opened the restaurant, and he readily admits that those hordes have not yet appeared. In fact, he closed it down for three months over the winter.

“No one really knows it’s here,” he said. “Signage is our biggest issue,” partly because the restaurant sits on one side of Interstate 75 and the Ark is on the other. “But I like to be optimistic. We’ve been here a year and it’s going to grow.”

Stormey Vanover is less hopeful.

She has operated Country Heart Crafts on Williamstown’s Main Street for the past nine years, sometimes with a profit, sometimes at a loss.

“We do get a few people from the Ark, but they don’t really know we’re here,” she said amid the Kentucky-made soaps, candles and ornaments featured in her store, which is surrounded by empty storefronts. “It’s just not impacting us the way we thought it would.”

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article154014269.html#storylink=cpy

Maybe because impact has no meaning as a verb except in reference to teeth or bodily orifices.

It has been almost a year since Ark Encounter opened, promising a surge of economic development in the county of 24,000 people in return for generous state and local tax breaks.

Ark co-founder Mike Zovath said the attraction will attract its 1 millionth visitor by July, but there is no way to independently verify that number. He says all of Answers in Genesis, including the Creation Museum, will employ about 900 people this summer.

Locals do see cars and tour buses full of tourists eager to see the life-size wooden boat, filled with exhibits of young-Earth creationism, an animatronic Noah and friendly dinosaurs. What they don’t see is those tourists crossing over I-75 to drive the mile or two into downtown Williamstown to eat, drink and shop.

Main Street has been in decline since the 1970s, when I-75 replaced KY-25 as a major north-south artery that was filled with cars and people, locals say. The Ark was the first ray of hope the city had seen in years.

In his office at the old county courthouse, Grant County Judge-Executive Steve Wood has heard all the complaints. Dry Ridge, about five miles north on I-75, has seen an uptick in hotel and restaurant business, but Williamstown, which sits farther off the interstate, hasn’t appeared to share in the bounty.

Wood knows that tourism revenue is up based on hotel tax receipts, but as the anniversary of Ark Encounter approaches, he doesn’t think the benefits are yet outweighing what Grant County and the state gave away.

“It’s a really bad deal for taxpayers,” Wood said of the Ark Encounter’s agreements with the county and city, which were made before he took office last year. The biggest property tax break will be in place for 30 years. “It was a shock for me because I didn’t really know all the details. Maybe I should have.”

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article154014269.html#storylink=cpy

Ya THINK?!

Answers in Genesis received a generous combination of state and local incentives, acknowledging in numerous documents that without them, the $100 million attraction would not be built in Grant County.

Former Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration awarded the project a sales tax rebate under the state’s Tourism Development Incentive Program for as much as $18 million over 10 years. It was later canceled after state officials found out that the attraction would require declarations of Christian faith from potential employees. Ark officials sued and won in federal court. Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration then reappproved the initial request.

The company will report its first-year sales to the Tourism Development Finance Authority in August, officials said.

The state also agreed to expand the I-75 interchange at costs that ranged between $9 million and $11 million. State transportation officials recently decided to rebuild the exit ramps at a cost of $2.4 million, making them wider so traffic doesn’t back up onto I-75. That project is scheduled to start this fall.

Grant County and Williamstown officials also offered a series of incentives, none of which have accountability measures, such as requiring the company to maintain a certain number of jobs.

SNIP

The first year of the Ark park has coincided with the near-bankruptcy of Grant County, troubles that stem from inefficiencies and overspending at the county jail. Wood and the fiscal court recently implemented a 2 percent payroll tax, which will infuse a much-needed $3 million into county coffers. That tax will drop to 1.5 percent in the second year and 1 percent in the third.

SNIP

“The Ark’s growth is great for their success,” Murphy said. “But until we see some of that here, it’s really not done as well as we hoped.”