Just to remind everyone, here's the list of tax law provisions currently scheduled to expire on December 31, 2010.
Should Kentucky Provide Tax Incentives to Proposed Creationism Theme Park?
Operators of Kentucky's Creation Museum are seeking tax incentives to build a creationism theme park called Ark Encounter, which, according to preliminary estimates, could draw as many as 1.6 million guests a year.
The developers are seeking the tax incentives under the Kentucky Tourism Development Act. If the project is approved, the park's developers could recover up to 25 percent of the project's cost in the form of returned sales tax paid by visitors on admission tickets, food, gift sales and lodging costs.
Developers Mike Zovath, senior vice president of the non-profit group Answers in Genesis, and Ark Encounter LLC, a for-profit company based in Springfield, Mo., have not finalized the park's location and are still considering an Indiana location.
Not surprisingly, some controversy surrounds the proposed use of tax incentives for a religious-themed park. From the Courier-Journal:
Advocates for church-state separation question whether the tax incentives would raise First Amendment issues.
Louisville attorney David Tachau, who successfully sued over a state appropriation for a religiously affiliated pharmacy school, said he would have to further research the issue.
"It certainly sounds as if the mechanism for supporting a particular religious dogma would violate the establishment of religious prohibitions in the state and federal constitutions, but there may be slippery ways this could pass muster," he said.
Edwin Kagin, a Northern Kentucky attorney who is also the national legal director for the group American Atheists, said it doesn't appear to him to violate the law. If other projects with religious themes could qualify for the tax incentives, the law doesn't discriminate.
"It might not be discrimination, but it might not be a good idea," Kagin said.
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Martin Cothran, senior policy analyst for the Family Foundation, said his organization doesn't believe there would be a problem in giving a tax break to an organization that is "not explicitly religious."
"Whether you agree with them or not, they are making a claim that what they are doing is scientific and it's not necessarily the state's business to second guess that," Cothran said.
There an additional issue that Kentucky officials should consider when weighing the merits of this project: regardless of the content or theme of the park, is it good policy for states to provide preferential tax treatment to tourist-friendly businesses?
The Report Is Out: Deficit Commission Unveils Its 'Moment of Truth'
The White House deficit commission - a/k/a The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform - has released its long-awaited report, with the title "The Moment of Truth." In the report's preamble, members sign on to an unusually blunt summary of the state of affairs:
After all the talk about debt and deficits, it is long past time for America’s leaders to put up or shut up. The era of debt denial is over, and there can be no turning back. We sign our names to this plan because we love our children, our grandchildren, and our country too much not to act while we still have the chance to secure a better future for all our fellow citizens.
Whether the love of the commission members for their grandchildren will be enough to garner the bipartisan support they're hoping for remains to be seen, though it seems all but certain that the Commission's recommendations will inspire the "heart-wrenching media assaults" by "countless advocacy groups and special interests" that they've already predicted. Initial reaction by John Merline of AOL News here.
Tax Debate Heats up in Washington
Congress appears to be gearing up to tackle the question over whether tax rates should increase in 2011.
"The House will hold a vote this week on extending the George W. Bush-era tax cuts only for middle income Americans," reports TheHill.com. But that publication is predicting a contentious debate in the Senate between legislators who prefer raising taxes only on people making more than $250,00 (as Obama has previously suggested) or to forgo any tax rate hike regardless of income-level.
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