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April 27, 2022 Post a Comment

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is following through with threats confronting Disney World's self-governing powers.

DeSantis announced this morning that he would enquire Florida lawmakers to eliminate the Reedy Creek Comeback District during a special Legislative session that started today.

©The Florida Channel | Courtesy of WTVT

The proclamation escalates the feud between DeSantis and Disney, which until at present has largely been a war of words over actions by Disney that DeSantis deems "woke." The feud began when Disney CEO Bob Chapek spoke out confronting the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, which critics phone call the "Don't Say Gay Bill."

"The threat to the Reedy Creek Comeback Commune is real," Dr. James Clark, a political analyst and senior lecturer in the University of Central Florida Section of History, said in an interview with Disney Food Blog. " Governor DeSantis has found a bully culture war result in bashing Disney and I do not see him stopping the bashing as long as it drives donations and support."

Repeal Would Affect Orange, Osceola Counties' Bottom Line

The Reedy Creek Improvement District, created by the Reedy Creek Improvement Deed in 1967, was requested past Walt Disney himself during the planning and building of Walt Disney World.

It gives Walt Disney World the powers to create its own municipalities, which in turn allows the company to plant its own building and zoning regulations and run its own emergency services similar a fire department. Disney could fifty-fifty build its own airport or nuclear power plant – provided it met all state and federal regulations, Clark said.

Reedy Creek Fire Department ©Reedy Creek

Dr. Susan MacManus, a political analyst and University of South Florida Distinguished Professor Emerita of Political Scientific discipline, said she finds the threat against the Reedy Creek Improvement District unusual because of all it would take to unravel it.

If the RCID were eliminated, control of the 40+ foursquare miles owned by Walt Disney Globe would go back to the ii counties it straddles – Osceola and Orange. They would accept to provide the fire protection, emergency medical services, permitting services and other governance that Disney now does for itself.

And they would exist doing it without more tax money.

The Walt Disney Globe main gate

"The special commune does not exempt Disney from paying belongings taxes," Clark said. Disney is Central Florida's largest taxpayer, paying nearly $300 meg per year in holding taxes to Orange and Osceola counties, as well as near $250 million in other state taxes.

And then, if those counties had to presume many of the roles the Reedy Creek Improvement District now performs, they would exist doing it without any existent expanded income, relieve some potential permitting and other construction fees. The counties could create a special burn down protection taxing district to re-insurrection some of the money needed to supercede the 200-employee Reedy Creek Fire Section, which provides 911 emergency services, burn protection, and emergency medical services. But other services counties are expected to provide would fall dorsum to both of the counties to fund, and that might lead to an increase in property taxes for local residents, Clark said.

Road construction at Walt Disney World

Orange County may even stand to lose some income, Clark said, as the cities independent in the Reedy Creek Improvement Commune – Lake Buena Vista and the Urban center of Bay Lake – contract with the Orangish County Sheriff's Department for some police protection. The ii cities approaching a combined $22.8 1000000 for this police protection in fiscal year 2022.

"I'm not sure they (Orange and Osceola counties) want to take over Disney World," Clark said. "Information technology's kind of a bottomless pit in terms of how much it would toll them – information technology'due south the great unknown."

Construction on the new Tron attraction continues at the Magic Kingdom,

The establishment of the district has meant that Disney has built – and funded without tax dollars – its ain roads and infrastructure as its resort twice the size of Manhattan has developed over the past v decades. Clark said fifty-fifty if Orangish and Osceola counties were opposed to the change, they might have problems getting their voices heard in the state capital, since their representatives are Democrats.

MacManus – who lived in Orlando when the Reedy Creek Improvement District was created – agreed. "Information technology simply doesn't look similar the Dems volition make a lot of inroads on anything this session," she said.

" I never idea I'd see the day that Florida's largest employer, @WaltDisneyWorld , would be nether attack by the Florida Legislature. Disney is larger than almost cities, complete w fire stations, police officers, hospitals, & now adding affordable housing," Rep. Allison Tant (D.-Tallahassee) said Monday in a tweet.

Eliminating Disney's Improvement District Would Exist A Painful Blow

Despite the fact that eliminating Reedy Creek may injure the counties Walt Disney Globe is located in, Clark says this possibility is also "a disaster for Disney."

Disney's Animal Kingdom

T here would be significant impacts to the speed and cost of new construction for Disney going forward, since information technology would have to look to the counties for zoning changes and permitting, and pay impact fees that information technology does not pay at present.

Disney has a 55-yr history of managing its ain turf, and the potential impacts to its bottom line if it could no longer do that remain to be seen.

Fantasyland contruction

Both MacManus and Clark indicated that bringing the Disney upshot into this Legislative Special Session is surprising because of the "bigger" issues at stake for Florida residents.

State Rep. Randy Fine (R.-Melbourne Beach) is a sponsor of the bill, HB3C, which eliminates the Reedy Creek Comeback District. "Disney is a invitee in Florida," he said Monday in a tweet. "Today, we remind them."

"In that location are and so many more pressing things," MacManus said, pointing to the skyrocketing holding insurance rates in Florida, besides as condo safe legislation prompted by the 2021 Surfside Condominium Plummet. "There's ane affair almost Florida, though – you never say never."

Disney's Hollywood Studios

While information technology'due south not as if the Walt Disney Visitor could pick up and move a 27,000-acre resort to a different state because of political woes, in that location are other aspects of Disney's business organization it could choose to engage in elsewhere.

A projection that will relocate upwardly to ii,000 loftier-paid Disney Parks, Experience and Products professionals from California to a campus in Orlando'south Lake Nona expanse has been underway since June 2021. The moves are expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

But California Gov. Gavin Newsom has suggested that with the political climate in Florida, Disney may desire to put the brakes on the move. "Disney, the door is open to bring those jobs back to California – the state that really represents the values of your workers," Newsom said in a tweet.

Other Battles on the Horizon

Clark brings upwards another way state Legislative action could "hurt" Disney: loosening the way tourism taxes tin exist spent.

Orlando International Airdrome crowds

"Disney draws tens of millions of people to Florida every yr, and Central Florida is dependent on those tourists to pay the bills," Clark said. "They buy gasoline and pay gas taxes. They pay resort taxes. And that's another avenue where the Legislature could take a stab at Disney – past re-allocating where the resort taxes can be spent."

Orange County approaching an expected $175 1000000 in Tourist Development Taxes (aka the resort tax) for Fiscal Yr 2021-22. A big chunk of that comes from a 6 percent tax that every Disney guest pays on resort stays. And what is this coin used for? To promote the tourist attractions in Orlando – including Walt Disney World. Disney guests actually pay a tax that helps Disney Globe depict more Disney guests.

EPCOT

Clark points out that in other areas of the state, the Legislature has permitted counties to use less money for promotion and more money for other expenses, including things like building new infrastructure. But not in Orangish or Osceola counties … withal.

A bill proposed past state Rep. Anna Eskamani (D.-Orlando) in November 2021 sought to aggrandize Orange Canton's ability to spend resort tax money on road structure, after county leaders had to find other sources to fund road construction needed for Universal's new Ballsy Universe theme park.

©Universal | Epic Universe Concept Art

That bill stalled in the Legislature, largely because of political lobbying by Disney and other theme parks. But Clark said he expects the issue to be brought up once more.

Disney and Florida Politics: Inextricably Linked?

Speaking of those Disney lobbyists, they are a fixture in Tallahassee, where Clark says the corporation employs more than 30 political pros to lobby Legislators on all kinds of issues including, recently, drumming upwardly support for a pecker that would take prohibited hotels and motels in Florida from renting rooms at hourly rates.

Another event Disney has spent money lobbying confronting in Tallahassee? Gambling expansion in Florida. Disney and the Seminole Tribe of Florida together spent more than $26 1000000 in 2018 to put the control of gambling expansion in the easily of voters.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek in Disney World on its 50th Anniversary

Right now, Clark envisions that team of lobbyists will be turned loose to fight the elimination of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, while Disney lawyers are turning over stones looking for legal arguments and preparing to challenge any potential Legislative activeness.

This all makes for an unusual chapter in the state's history, as Disney and Florida accept shared an almost symbiotic relationship for so long – one that has included many political donations.

"This has been a wonderful relationship – Disney helping the Legislators, and the Legislators helping Disney," Clark said. Not to mention that Disney is the land's largest single-site employer and the largest driver of tourism, the income from which has kept Florida a no-state-income-taxation state for generations.

Magic Kingdom

That "assistance" to the Legislators – in the course of political donations Disney regularly makes – is on concord, though. In a March 6 letter to employees, Chapek appear the Walt Disney Company would break all political donations in Florida after the passage of the Parental Rights in Educational activity Act.

Clark said in that location'due south a particular discussion in Chapek'south announcement that should be heeded: "intermission."

"Afterward Jan. 6 (2021), dozens of companies said they were pausing their donations, and later on a few months they came dorsum," Clark said. "I think he (Chapek) chose his words carefully to go out the door open."

Mickey Mouse

Clark said this issue is helping DeSantis's popularity.

"I think they (Disney) expected a sharp exchange betwixt themselves and DeSantis, and so for it to blow over," Clark said. "Simply DeSantis has found that this is a swell issue for him. He has been unbelievably successful."

With a rumored DeSantis Presidential Campaign on the horizon, it's probable Florida's governor will ride this wave as long equally it continues to assistance grow his base of operations.

"Right now, this governor is at his strongest," MacManus said.