MEDIA AND BLOGGERS OUT OF CONTROL RE: ARK
You may have read media reports and blogs that have misrepresented and/or lied about AiG’s dealings with local officials who have imposed a new city tax that places almost the entire tax burden on our ministry. Here is what we are sharing with the media when they ask us about the matter:
“Because the new ordinance passed by the City of Williamstown essentially singled out the Ark Encounter to shoulder nearly all the burden for additional safety services that will benefit the entire community and not just the Ark, and because of the ordinance’s wording concerning exemptions to the safety fee, we needed to keep our options open to protect the organization for the future. We have always said we want to pay our fair share for safety services, and believed we had made a highly reasonable counter proposal to the city council.
“It has always been our desire to be a partner in helping to grow the economy of a community that welcomed us so kindly. We are saddened that the city council did not extend the courtesy of discussing this ordinance with us before passing it and taking it public, and was not willing to negotiate further.
“We are thankful that even with over a million Ark guests who have come to Williamstown in just over a year, the number of calls from the Ark Encounter for emergency services has been quite small.”–Mark Looy, CCO
Wait. We liars have been saying that AiG didn’t want to pay the taxes imposed by Williamstown, and that they shuffled ownership of the Big Gay Wooden Box to a religious non-profit to avoid those taxes. Nothing in that comment rebuts those claims. They’re calling “tax shenanigans” keep our options open
, and they’re basically admitting that they got exasperated with the Williamstown requirements and acted to protect their own interests without regard for the tax laws. So we were right! We weren’t lying!
I’m also not impressed with the objection that darn it, this safety fee will benefit the whole community rather than just AiG. I would also like to point out that the fee is to pay for safety infrastructure rather than paying out on a case by case basis, so it’s irrelevant that they’ve only needed it a few times in the past. It’s like how Republicans don’t understand what insurance is.
Hey man, stop trying to CONTROL everything and maybe Kenny will leave you alone, yeah?
… or maybe just call him out and all his support will *evaporate* once everyone sees through his lies…?
… or maybe just … I dunno. (At there’s a little bit of idication that his obvious(!) fraud may finally be exposed. One can hope.)
Sometimes it’s best to just curl up and assume the fetal position… to prepare for the next fight!
Quoth Ham…”…over a million Ark guests who have come to Williamstown…”
Even if you accept his figures, those people didn’t go to Williamstown, they went the Big Gay Wooden Boat (that won’t float). that’s part of what the businesses in Williamstown is complaining about. Those going to see the BGWB (twf) *aren’t* coming into town and spending money there.
Do ordinary citizens get to make “counter proposals” to their tax bills, or is it just the owners of Big Gay Wooden Boondoggles who are allowed to claim such rights?
Unfortunately, Daz, people like you and me don’t get to do that. Only the shapeshifting wizard-person nobility are trusted to make such proposals for us. And they clearly are negotiating on our behalf, out of a deep desire to partner with lesser beings like us, who play a vital role in embiggening the economy for them.
That’s just the natural order of things. Besides, I mean, come on … imagine how crazy it would be if everyone did that. Probably best just to leave it to the experts.
CR, experts are so overrated dontchaknow.
Of course they understand the concept of insurance. It’s public services funded by other people’s money.
Some of that tax money is for fire trucks. Perhaps Williamstown should tell Ham to provide their own fire protection if he doesn’t want to pay the town for it. The BGWB is probably the only reason Williamstown needs additional fire trucks, and it’s certainly the biggest. From Google Earth’s history view, it doesn’t look like there’s been any other change in Williamstown since the mid-90s.
And lest we forget, Williamstown kicked in a $62 million interest free loan* and a 30-year 75% property tax break.
* The Ark Park takes a 2% pre-tax deduction out of their staff’s paychecks to pay back the loan. Bastards.
Of course he understands insurance. That’s why he doesn’t want good emergency services. That’ll make it so much harder to torch the whole place when the money runs out.
Re: robro (#7):
I beg your pardon? Do I understand correctly that the employees are forced to pay off their employer‘s debt? If that’s the case the wooden box will definitiely need fire insurance.
Anything could happen. Maybe a particularly unhappy staffmember is on a cigarette break. Maybe it’s a very windy day so they stand close to the building. Maybe they’re carrying large volumes of flame accelerant with them…
Tell it to the Judge.
I just popped in to remind everyone that Ken Ham rapes piglets.
ta.
@komarov #9:
Now why would a good Christian need to carry accelerants around?
Connect Ham’s “spin” to a generator, to power the entire city. Let me work on that conceptual fantasm a bit. hmmm
Re: Rich Woods (#12):
Well, I was thinking more along the lines of burnt offerings but I suppose that’s for adherents of the olympic pantheon. Nevertheless, the principle remains the same and the accelerant is carried, as you allude to, for religious purposes.
Re: slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) (#13):
Don’t forget to market it as “spritual energy” – with a substantial mark-up.
Not sure, in all of their justice and equality, how a far-left liberal site like this completely ignores an unfair tax levy. I can agree with the shenanigans but are you guys really okay with singling out an entity and imposing a tax just on them for essential services? You people are pitiful and you claim to want all this fair and equal treatment but that goes right out the window when you want it to, doesn’t it?
ctech #15:
Why is the tax unfair? What gives you the impression that this particular entity is being “singled out”?
I am OK with the ticket tax if the park doesn’t pay local property taxes, which is the source of most local essential services. The local area must supply those services, and if the park is likely to make use of those services, the park should support them with the ticket tax. Otherwise, I want to see the park supply their own emergency services, including an around the clock fire department.
Nerd/span> #17:
Not sure I even agree with this compromise. Allowing opt-outs from payment for public services for those who wish to pay a private service effectively defunds the public service, to the detriment of those who aren’t lucky enough to afford the private.
@Daz: Uffish, yet slightly frabjous: Wording in the original link article from PZ’s post “Ken Ham’s Big Wooden Box just been sold” indicated that it was levied only on the Ark. Now, wording from the Ark response seems to corroborate that from the original article. Of course, that is one of the things I said in other PZ blog on this topic is that I would have like to have seen some reporting about how other businesses are paying the safety tax and their thoughts on the matter which the reporting did neither of these. Their lack of covering the story from those perspectives also makes me wonder if there was even anything to discuss with other shop owners. Ultimately, I find it hard to believe a government council will just come in and gank/jack a company’s ticket sales without doing the same to other shops to help pay for essential services. I am actually more liberal to taxing a ticket sale to help offset the cost of non-essential services. Essential services here to mean fire and police I assume, although, some have taken it to mean ambulance which I find hard to believe as well because ambulance service is typically not a public service.