DeSantis Vs Disney (The Villages, Bell: appointed, sales, assessors)

[GiveMeCoffee]

How do you see the DeSantis vs. Disney issues playing out?

[drive carephilly]

DeSantis won't be governor in 3 years and this whole thing goes away.

I don't care much for the games and the politicking but I will say that it's friggin' outrageous that two major theme parks pay taxes to the school district and the County and the other one has had a 55 year free ride. If there's one thing I hoped that would've come out of all of the drama is that they were made to start paying their fair share.

[SanyBelle]

Originally Posted by drive carephilly

DeSantis won't be governor in 3 years and this whole thing goes away.

I don't care much for the games and the politicking but I will say that it's friggin' outrageous that two major theme parks pay taxes to the school district and the County and the other one has had a 55 year free ride. If there's one thing I hoped that would've come out of all of the drama is that they were made to start paying their fair share.

I read that there are 1400 special taxing districts in Florida, do the other 1399 not pay their fair share either? The Villages is another big special taxing district, are they getting away without paying taxes?

Of course this info comes from the media, who knows if it's correct or not?

[Ted Bear]

DeSantis is in WAY over his head messing with Disney.

Aside from that, DeSantis' positions on abortion, education, guns, immigration and other "hot button" issues are outside of the mainstream, and he will be exposed for being a Trump Lite (who is enough of a disaster in his own right) and will get crushed in any national election.

Would like to see Disney move the whole shebang to Puerto Rico and redevelop that island with solid infrastructure and exciting new projects.

Watching DeSantis wiggle and squirm under the gun of popular dismissal and legal skirmishes with Disney will be entertaining, but DeSantis will get DeStroyed.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by drive carephilly

DeSantis won't be governor in 3 years and this whole thing goes away.

I don't care much for the games and the politicking but I will say that it's friggin' outrageous that two major theme parks pay taxes to the school district and the County and the other one has had a 55 year free ride. If there's one thing I hoped that would've come out of all of the drama is that they were made to start paying their fair share.

Then there's the double-edged sword consideration that minus Disney and the millions of visitors it attracts how much sales tax and hotel tax revenue would be off the table. The original agreement was set up for a reason and would guess at the time their value of presence superseded any taxation. It still holds true today, political temper tantrums aside.

[VA Yankee]

Originally Posted by drive carephilly

DeSantis won't be governor in 3 years and this whole thing goes away.

I don't care much for the games and the politicking but I will say that it's friggin' outrageous that two major theme parks pay taxes to the school district and the County and the other one has had a 55 year free ride. If there's one thing I hoped that would've come out of all of the drama is that they were made to start paying their fair share.

What do you mean about taxes, Disney pays state and county taxes the same as everyone else? The assessments are done by the state and the counties they reside in.

[lunetunelover]

Yeah, the tax issue is really not understood. Disney pays taxes.

I generally support DeSantis but I believe this battle with Disney has gone far enough and will cost taxpayers too much. I thought Disney was out of line getting too involved in an education bill that really had no impact on their business. And I also agreed with DeSantis that perhaps all of these special districts needed to be reviewed and updated.

I really thought Disney would reapply for the district and it would all go away...but it seems there are still lots of little "gotchas" going back and forth.

At the end of the day, Disney has way too much infrastructure investment to walk away. And DeSantis needs to mend fences on this and move forward.

I really don't expect much to really happen, but there are some folks who will make it their life focus.

[drive carephilly]

Originally Posted by VA Yankee

What do you mean about taxes, Disney pays state and county taxes the same as everyone else? The assessments are done by the state and the counties they reside in.

To be fair "free ride" was hyperbolic but it sounds a lot better than "fair ride."

They do pay state taxes like everyone else but they don't exactly pay county taxes like everyone else and because they run their own municipality a lot of the services they need to function, which would be taxed in any other industry (and are taxed at Universal), are basically off the roles there because it's "municipal."

For a long time they've been messing with what services they should and shouldn't pay for. What should and shouldn't be assessed. And what infrastructure they should and shouldn't pay for.

That Rick Singh "Me Too" case happened at the same time Disney was suing him over assessments at one of their hotels that was outside of RCID. They sued him a bunch of times before that too and then apparently funded a PAC to run smear ads against him and stir up all kinds of allegations of corruption. The State ultimately dropped the charges against him after he was replaced with Amy Mercado who then settled out of court ($341k each) with Singh's accusers "me too" accusers.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2021...nghs-accusers/

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2019...208%3A35%20p.m.

It would be easy to dismiss if they weren't also doing it to the apparently spine-having Amy Mercado.

https://wdwnt.com/2022/06/disney-fil...rty-assessors/

Originally Posted by SanyBelle

I read that there are 1400 special taxing districts in Florida, do the other 1399 not pay their fair share either? The Villages is another big special taxing district, are they getting away without paying taxes?

Of course this info comes from the media, who knows if it's correct or not?

To be clear, I'm not saying they don't pay any taxes. I'm saying that Disney doesn't pay their fair share. The Villages, also to be clear, is a special district but it's not organized under the same chapter of state statute that RCID is. Also, as far as I know, the Villages isn't one special district but rather a dozen or so. It's also my understanding that Boards of those special districts are locally elected.

Most of the special districts around the state were set up for one purpose or another, a public library district, a water management district, flood control, fire control, historic preservation, downtown streetscape, etc. etc. and usually function as an arm of local or county government. You might vote for some of them on your local ballot or in some cases the board gets appointed by the local city council or county commission. It's not as if the public has no say in what happens there. Also, every state has some version of them. The vast majority of the special districts in Florida are either CDDs (Community Development Districts) or CRAs (Community Redevelopment Authorities) and both serve a very similar purpose as special taxing districts. They raise funds from within the community and then spend that money on infrastructure within the community. https://www.orangecountyfl.net/Home/...Districts.aspx

There are very few special districts in Florida that are anything like RCID - their own city. And very few of those are controlled entirely by one company for the sole benefit of that one company.

[drive carephilly]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

Then there's the double-edged sword consideration that minus Disney and the millions of visitors it attracts how much sales tax and hotel tax revenue would be off the table. The original agreement was set up for a reason and would guess at the time their value of presence superseded any taxation. It still holds true today, political temper tantrums aside.

Disney is in business to make money. No grudge there - but they take more than they give. Even compared to the other theme parks.

We know the dollar value of the hotel tax and have a pretty good sense of the boost to local sales taxes. The question isn't whether or not the money is there. It's what does it get spent on? A new road to Universal? A new rail line to Universal (that they orchestrated the moving of)? Comcast can't afford to build their own driveway?

Every day roughly 12% of the people in the County are here visiting. Yes, we get a lot of relatively low wage jobs out of it but it's also a huge burden on local infrastructure. If the tourist taxes aren't paying for all of that and more then it's not a net.

And yes, RCID was set up to provide infrastructure to their site in a corner of the County that didn't have any. No one lived out there in the late 60s, which is precisely why Disney was interested - because the encroaching suburbs of Anaheim were a major sore point for Walt and Anaheim's permitting process also really got under his skin.

The issue isn't with RCID being conceived and chartered. Great. Again, no beef. The issue is with it not being written to sunset after 30 years and letting one company issue tax free muni bonds for their company town when their direct competitors can not. And then, after all of the political grandstanding, all DeSantis did was rewrite it so the governor picks the Board. As if subsequent governors will always be Republican or even if they are, that they'll take up his axe and grind it.

My only expectation is that Disney get all the rights and privileges of Universal and SeaWorld and nothing more.

[VA Yankee]

Originally Posted by drive carephilly

To be fair "free ride" was hyperbolic but it sounds a lot better than "fair ride."

They do pay state taxes like everyone else but they don't exactly pay county taxes like everyone else and because they run their own municipality a lot of the services they need to function, which would be taxed in any other industry (and are taxed at Universal), are basically off the roles there because it's "municipal."

For a long time they've been messing with what services they should and shouldn't pay for. What should and shouldn't be assessed. And what infrastructure they should and shouldn't pay for.

Paper links popped up as having to pay but I can get the gist.

Why should Disney pay for county provided services when they were being provided by the former Reedy Creek District who they pay additional tax's to so they can provide those services. Wasn't that the main purpose of the district when it was created to develop and maintain the infrastructure needed so the cost and burden wouldn't be placed on the counties?

Reedy creek was held up as a model example of municipal government, even to this day no accusations have come out about mismanagement or failing in maintaining their obligations. The challenges to the tax appraisal are legal just as any company is allowed, even Universal & Sea World filed suit so many the former appraiser had more than one issue.

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/u...arages-9409597
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2016...r-assessments/
https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/...-property.html