LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – A battle over a Kentucky tax incentive for a religious theme park featuring Noah’s Ark has ended in a win for the big boat.
A state tourism board this week approved a sales tax rebate incentive worth about $18 million for the 510-foot-long Ark Encounter attraction, tourism spokesman Garry Gupton said.
Kentucky officials in 2014 withdrew the project from the incentive program, which rebates a portion of sales tax collected by a tourist attraction. State officials at the time said the incentive would be funding “religious indoctrination.”
Answers in Genesis, the Christian group behind the ark, won a federal court ruling in January that said it could get the tax incentive, despite the park’s religious theme. Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, who took office in December, declined to appeal the ruling.