News Reedy Creek Improvement District and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District

[Prince-1]

I posted the Daily Wire one as a joke, because we all know they are biased to the right.

 

[WoundedDreamer]

We’re all aware of Married to the Mouse.

The bond issue had nothing to do with the setup of Reedy Creek Improvement District. That was entirely on the state because that’s how the state chose to handle bonds at the time. Being able to issue bonds is also not a unique power.

Garages are often considered part of roads and transportation so that too would not be a unique power.

Trying to prevent access to Bonnet Creek was based more around Disney’s ownership. The District didn’t really make that boneheaded attempt more likely as right of access is rather well established in common law.

Disney has paid significantly more in property taxes than they ever would have paid in impact fees. The scale of difference is not even comparable. Disney would have to build hundreds of thousands of new square feet every year to even get close.

So what you’re really talking about is prohibiting Disney from utilizing tools and powers offered to other large land owners.

Yes, I want Disney to be deprived of equal rights under the law. I want them to be permanently hamstrung.

Or maybe I would prefer an RCID with a narrowed scope and greater oversight by the local community. One where voters (you know actual voters and not cast members living Disney's corporate trailer park) have a greater say over how the RCID is developed and public funds are spent. At least the pretense of some representative government.

To once again quote you:

The grievances of those surrounding the Improvement District should not be dismissed as mere entertainment. And yes, by deciding who is in place and the policies, Disney very much does run things. If they want a zoning change, Disney gets a zoning change. If they want roads moved, they get roads moved. If they want garages built without additional taxes being paid they get a garage built.

 

[castlecake2.0]

Yes, I want Disney to be deprived of equal rights under the law. I want them to be permanently hamstrung.

Or maybe I would prefer an RCID with a narrowed scope and greater oversight by the local community. One where voters (you know actual voters and not cast members living Disney's corporate trailer park) have a greater say over how the RCID is developed and public funds are spent. At least the pretense of some representative government.

To once again quote you:

Who would be the voters? Who has the say of how “public” funds are spent when almost 90% of the funds comes from TWDC. The majority of the district is Disney owned land, the district itself has very little, most is owned by Disney and affiliated companies.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Yes, I want Disney to be deprived of equal rights under the law. I want them to be permanently hamstrung.

Or maybe I would prefer an RCID with a narrowed scope and greater oversight by the local community. One where voters (you know actual voters and not cast members living Disney's corporate trailer park) have a greater say over how the RCID is developed and public funds are spent. At least the pretense of some representative government.

To once again quote you:

The issues you have mentioned are all related to powers offered to a bog standard community development district. They are powers offered to anyone. Saying they should not be offered to Disney means you are preventing Disney from having access to powers offered to everyone else.

 

[peter11435]

One where voters (you know actual voters and not cast members living Disney's corporate trailer park) have a greater say over how the RCID is developed and public funds are spent. At least the pretense of some representative government.

:

Why should voters outside the district, who do not pay taxes to the district have any say in how RCID is developed and its funds are spent. The district isn’t spending public funds that were sourced from anyone outside the district.

I don’t have much say in how my neighboring cities, counties, or states are developed or how they spend their tax dollars. And neither do you. What you’re proposing is absurd.

For the first 5 decades RCID was the literal definition of representative government. The problem is that you seem to misunderstand who the district represents.

 

[flyakite]

Orlando Sentinel:

NOTICE OF INTENT TO SEEK LEGISLATION RELATING TO THE REPEAL OF THE CENTRAL
FLORID TOURISM OVERSIGHT DISTRICT
Notice is hereby given of intent to apply to the Florida Legislature, in the 2024 regular session, for passage an act relating to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, Orange and Osceola Counties; repealing chapter 2023-5, Laws of Florida, which established the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District; reviving, reenacting, and readopting chapter 67-764, Laws of Florida, and the decree in chancery No. 66-1061 entered by the Circuit Court in and for the Ninth Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida on May 13, 1966, relating to the Reedy Creek Improvement District; reconstituting the Reedy Creek Improvement District as it existed as of February 26, 2023; terminating the terms of office of the Board of Supervisors of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District; providing transitional provisions; providing for construction; providing an effective date.
12/7/2023 7543378

Maybe this is Disney Defenders?

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Is it not racist to discriminate on the basis of race? Worse yet, is it appropriate to make selections for vendors based on their race instead of which will offer the highest quality at the lowest price?

Of all the politically-tinged elements of this report, I'm shocked you picked such weak sauce.

There’s a shocking lack of self-awareness, to not only claim that DEI programs are “racist,” but to use this particular meme to try to make that point.

 

[scottieRoss]

Yes, I want Disney to be deprived of equal rights under the law. I want them to be permanently hamstrung.

Or maybe I would prefer an RCID with a narrowed scope and greater oversight by the local community. One where voters (you know actual voters and not cast members living Disney's corporate trailer park) have a greater say over how the RCID is developed and public funds are spent. At least the pretense of some representative government.

To once again quote you:

Now I am really confused. RCID was a representative government. It had voters that made the decisions on who were the board of supervisors. And those voters are not the residents of the Disney trailer parks. The voters were the landowners, just like in many other Florida districts.
And the scope of RCID was not oversight, it was the support of Walt Disney World. They existed to help TWDC to develop their little parcel of land, not to oversee what Disney did with it. And the Board was to be overseen by the landowner, not the citizens of the area outside of the district. Just like the little suburb I live in does not oversee the districts that serve San Antonio or even the municipal electric utility that serves us because it is owned by the city of San Antonio. Why should a citizen that lives by the convention center have any say in what happens down the I-4?

 

[mkt]

I missed it, anyone got a transcript?

Here you go, I transcribed it:

Thank you.

Good morning, my name is Debbie McDonald and I’d like to wish the original employees of Reedy Creek, including the over 50 who have left, a very merry Christmas.

To the board, especially to Mrs. Ziegler who is not present today, I hope 2024 will be a much better year for you.

Free speech is important. Congress will make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or the press, or the right of the people peacefully to assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The thing about free speech is we don’t get to choose what we want to accept or what we want to hear. If we chip away at it, it starts to erode, and our democracy is at risk.

There’s many things that we don’t want to hear, um, but it’s important, and we need to respect that we live in a country where we have the right for those things to be said.

Today a member of our board, who is attending virtual perhaps, is a great example of free speech. It is not my place to judge her behavior or that of her husband – they deserve their day in court.

The governor has called on her husband Christian Ziegler to resign his position with the Florida GOP in the wake of serious criminal allegations. Bridget should follow.

The governor has good reason, no matter what the details surrounding this family’s legal troubles, it is a distraction. In her case, it is a distraction from the governance of this board.

Mrs. Ziegler has not made Florida a better place. She is the face of the “Don’t Say Gay” revolution, which brought this board to where it is to this place today and has caused untold harm in our classrooms and in our communities. Many families have left my community of Celebration in fear because they believe the state is persecuting them and their children. Teachers have lost their jobs over these policies. Her role in demonizing the LGBTQ community is hurting the state, while she apparently been a part of the letter ‘B’ in that group.

This is hypocrisy at its finest.

Bridget, you need to do what is best for the greater good. We live in a free Florida, not an autocratic pseudo-Christian dictatorship.

What Mrs. Ziegler does privately, with other consenting adults is no more our business than it is the behavior of the other consenting adults she pretends to find abhorrent. It is the rank hypocrisy of attacking others for what she personally practices that should disqualify her for position of public trust.

Thank you.

 

[Twirlnhurl]

Or maybe I would prefer an RCID with a narrowed scope and greater oversight by the local community. One where voters (you know actual voters and not cast members living Disney's corporate trailer park) have a greater say over how the RCID is developed and public funds are spent. At least the pretense of some representative government.

The greater community already has that with the government of Orange County. RCID was created as a way to provide additional services to Disney on top of Orange County's services in exchange for higher tax rates. I don't think that is an unreasonable arrangement for the broader community.
Just because Disney has lots of money doesn't mean they owe it to their neighbors.

 

[mkt]

Yes, I want Disney to be deprived of equal rights under the law. I want them to be permanently hamstrung.

Or maybe I would prefer an RCID with a narrowed scope and greater oversight by the local community. One where voters (you know actual voters and not cast members living Disney's corporate trailer park) have a greater say over how the RCID is developed and public funds are spent. At least the pretense of some representative government.

To once again quote you:

Suggestion:

A 7 member board.

Disney gets 4 seats, 1 is elected by the people of Orange County, 1 is elected by the people of Osceola County, and the final one is appointed by the governor.

 

[JKick95]

Suggestion:

A 7 member board.

Disney gets 4 seats, 1 is elected by the people of Orange County, 1 is elected by the people of Osceola County, and the final one is appointed by the governor.

This is what I think should happen. Maybe give the other businesses in the district a seat as well.

 

[Figgy1]

Yes, I want Disney to be deprived of equal rights under the law. I want them to be permanently hamstrung.

Or maybe I would prefer an RCID with a narrowed scope and greater oversight by the local community. One where voters (you know actual voters and not cast members living Disney's corporate trailer park) have a greater say over how the RCID is developed and public funds are spent. At least the pretense of some representative government.

To once again quote you:

You probably would have liked the original legislation where the district would have been dissolved. That didn't wind up happening because of the increases in property taxes that would have wound up happening partially due to the bond payments, partially because the counties would have had to take over the services.
Do you have a problem with Universal's new district? The one covering Daytona Speedway?

 

[Marionnette]

Suggestion:

A 7 member board.

Disney gets 4 seats, 1 is elected by the people of Orange County, 1 is elected by the people of Osceola County, and the final one is appointed by the governor.

Disney should not get any seats, especially not a controlling majority of the seats. Disney is a business. Businesses should not have representation on a governing board that determines where taxpayer funds are spent.

 

[Nevermore525]

Disney should not get any seats, especially not a controlling majority of the seats. Disney is a business. Businesses should not have representation on a governing board that determines where taxpayer funds are spent.

Disney accounts for 80-90% of the taxpayer funds in the district.

When the board says tax payers, they are primarily talking about and avoiding saying “Disney”.

 

[mkt]

Disney should not get any seats, especially not a controlling majority of the seats. Disney is a business. Businesses should not have representation on a governing board that determines where taxpayer funds are spent.

They are responsible for 80-90% of those taxpayer funds, but would get less than 60% of the seats.

Sounds like a solid tradeoff to me.

 

[mkt]

This is what I think should happen. Maybe give the other businesses in the district a seat as well.

Fair.

7 seats.

3x "Residents" (ie Disney)
1x non-Disney businesses
1x Orange County - elected
1x Osceola County - elected
1x Governor's appointee.

 

[castlecake2.0]

Disney should not get any seats, especially not a controlling majority of the seats. Disney is a business. Businesses should not have representation on a governing board that determines where taxpayer funds are spent.

I don’t think you understand how the District works, the taxes they are spending is almost 90% paid by Disney, the remaining 10% by other land owners in the district. The residents of orange and Osceola counties are paying $0 to the District.

 

[mkt]

I don’t think you understand how the District works, the taxes they are spending is almost 90% paid by Disney, the remaining 10% by other land owners in the district. The residents of orange and Osceola counties are paying $0 to the District.

This.

The state or the counties literally don't give a cent to the district, yet in my suggestion, I gave them all board seats.

 

[mikejs78]

Or maybe I would prefer an RCID with a narrowed scope and greater oversight by the local community. One where voters (you know actual voters and not cast members living Disney's corporate trailer park) have a greater say over how the RCID is developed and public funds are spent. At least the pretense of some representative government.

Why? Is the greater commuity paying for it?

Here's the thing: property taxes in FL are limited by the FL constitution to 10%. Disney currently pays that to Orange/Osecola counties just like everyone else and is subject to their jurisdiction. This 10% cannot be changed, except temporarily and by a vote of the electorate, but even then the tax rate would have to apply to *all* taxpayers in the county. Disney is still subject to all county regulations and laws, save for those that are reserved to the district around zoning and building codes (of which RCID's codes are stricter than general FL. building codes).

Disney pays an *additional* tax, I think around 10%, to the district. The FL constitution allows a higher tax rate to be set in law for a special district, as long as it is approved by the electorate in that district. Those taxes go to the infrastructure in that district. No funds from the counties paid by the general public go into the district.

So why should non-taxpayers in the district have a say on the infrastructure needs of those who are paying taxes in the district? It doesn't make any sense.

It's also worth noting that every single special district in the state of Florida that has taxing authority is governed by an elected board of those who either reside in the district or are landowners of the district - so Disney's situation is hardly unique. So why should Disney not be allowed to avail themselves of the same benefits that are given to Universal Studios, the Daytona Speedway, the Villages, and other Special Districts within the state of Florida?