LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – Construction has yet to begin on the northern Kentucky faith-based amusement park and already the initiative has thrust Kentucky into the national spotlight. The project is called “Ark Encounter” and the governor's decision to give the group developing the park millions of dollars in tax breaks is taking a lot of criticism; specifically whether Governor Steve Beshear can legally offer tax incentives to the faith-based park. I caught up with Governor Beshear Tuesday and he says the decision is legally sound.
"We did a thorough analysis of the law, obviously, before we encouraged the application to be put in, and there's nothing remotely unconstitutional about this because these kinds of incentives are open to any type of theme park that wants to come and apply, " says Governor Steve Beshear.
The incentives would essentially be a refund of sales taxes collected on the tickets to the park and other items sold there. The Beshear adminstration and the group developing the park says it legally qualifies under the Kentucky Tourism Develoment Act.
"There's nothing that should discriminate against us, so it is a profit venture with a nonprofit component involving our ministry here that will be designing and operating the park when it opens," says Mark Looy with the Creation Museum.
The Ark Encounter development is a for-profit project, which qualifies for the tax incentives. The full scale Noah's Ark itself will be built at a cost of $24.5 million by the nonprofit 'Answers for Genesis' which operates the Creation Museum. In all, the construction project will employ 900 people and is expected to attract 1.6 million visitors in its first year.
"Here we are on private property, privately funded. You would think in America you would be able to build something without opposition. We thought this opposition would rear its head with the Ark Encounter because it does deal with a theme from the Bible's Old Testament," says Looy.
Governor Steve Beshear says despite the criticism and controversey, his decision comes down to jobs. "I'm not arguing with them over religion or religion issues. My whole point here is that people in this state didn't elect me to argue issues about religion. They elected me to create jobs for our people and that's what we are doing," says Gov Beshear.
The groundbreaking on the new amusement park will begin next year and be completed in 2014.