That’s probably the goal…”take it down” and change nothing…
Can they even tighten that though? Fitch basically said they needed to have all the same construction and planning powers as they did before.
Hearing them double down on this, I actually am now changing my opinion and think they really thought that they could take this thing down and take down Disney, and own them. It's not going to work out the way they think.
Maybe they can tighten how projects affect revenue of a business. The Disney Springs parking garages being built tax free is a good example of a project viewed problematic.
I have been saying this all along. I would have no problem with DeSantis making statements against Disney. It would be within his rights to even call for a boycott. If he feels Disney‘s comments on this legislation were inappropriate that’s the proper way to handle it. What I have a big problem with is when elected officials use the power of the government that has been given to them by the people to attack and/or harm a political adversary. It’s right out of Putin Russia minus the poison. It’s never OK for a government to use taxes as a punishment on a person or company that has a different political opinion. Anyone who looks at this objectively can see that but some have blinders on.
Disney will not finance those kinda”non-sexy” things on its ledger. Will. Not.
If a new district is created and the new district covers RCID land then the same exact taxpayers are covered (pretty much Disney and a handful of others). 100% of the taxes paid to RCID are used for “stuff” at WDW. So if Disney pays more taxes the more taxes would go to the new district and the new district only pays for “stuff“ at WDW then how exactly is that different than RCID? Disney would only say no if they lost control. For example if they tried to establish a new district with independent board members that would be a hard no. Imagine being the sole tax payer but having some other people decide how the money would be spent.
Roads and parking garages and electric lines and sewers don’t generally generate income. In a pure municipal setting if the government decides a new parking garage is needed for something like a train station they build it, pay for it with bonds and then charge a parking fee to cover the debt payments. This allows the garage to be built without raising taxes on the taxpayers many of whom will never use the garage and puts the cost on the actual users of the garage. Because you can’t reach out to people who may use your garage and ask for $1,000 each up front to pay for construction (unless you own an NFL team and sell seat licenses) the way these projects get funded is through municipal bonds and slow payments for use over time that cover debt payments and future maintenance. In the case of the DS garages they chose to not charge for parking and make the taxpayers foot the bill. That would be problematic if Disney wasn’t the only taxpayer….but they are so nobody other than Disney is “harmed” but they wanted the garage in the first place so win/win.
One thing is for sure the Florida economy is too diverse for this RCID issue to cause it to tank. Exaggerations are not helpful.
It’s not an exaggeration. This has nothing to do with the diversity of the economy. Negative comments regarding Florida bonds will effect the economy, actual action like downgrades would be incredibly serious.
“Tank” is probably to severe
If FLs bond ratings get lowered as a result of this, it could very well severely impact their economy.
I think the people at RCID should be talking with the Fitch Ratings and others about tanking the Florida rating as well. You don't downgrade the states largest employer and largest taxpayer without repercussions to the state as well. If it gets downgraded, you'd see the bill reversed quickly if the idiots there realized that they just killed their state.
Did you even read what I wrote? I said legal responses to RCID legislation are not the same as public responses to the political attacks on the company’s image. The latter is what TWDC is mismanaging. That has nothing to do with park pricing, etc. The bigger and far more significant story here is how the political discourse is tarnishing the company’s brand. TWDC seems to think if it’s ignored it’ll go away. If anything, the last five years should tell us bad dishonest things don’t just go away when you ignore them.
“Tank to profit” has been employed more and more in the US…especially in the 21st century
The issue is not because of who issued the bonds, but how the state is handling them. The concern is that the state is reneging on obligations and there are no guardrails. If they can change how the Reedy Creek bonds are secured and financed after they have been issued then they could do the same to other bonds and obligations.
