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

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
If it ever gets that far… I still think this is all political theater and nothing will likely change.
It is not just theater. A law was passed. The expense of a special session was incurred. The counties now having to assume the responsibilities of the districts to be dissolved have to start figuring things out right now. People have to decide if they need to start looking for work. This is real and it’s impact on people has started.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
How does that work though from the perspective that there are two counties involved?
Valid question. Its easier for roads and utilities since thats just based on what is in each county though the centralized power and water treatment would need to go one way or the other. For emergency services it’s possible they would have to split services between the counties so if there’s a fire or an EMS call for world of sports or the All Stars it’s routed to Osceola county but a call to MK goes to Orange County.

It’s also possible they keep RCID police and fire as an independent subcontracted agency and both counties just pay into the cost with Orange taking most of the cost since they have the much larger area.

Nobody knows but what we do know is it’s an unnecessary mess created for the wrong reasons. These are real people who have no idea the impact on their actual lives. My dad was a Philly firefighter for 30+ years so it hits home a little harder. There’s no way this petty, political nonsense should cause a first responder to not know if they have a job. It’s sad to see so many people so twisted by political agendas that they don’t care about the impact. Just punish the mouse since the CEO dared to speak his mind. Pathetic.
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
There is absolutely nothing misleading about discussing the situation as it exists right now. Presenting hypotheticals with no indication of their occurrence as fact is absolutely misleading.

County officials have to work with the laws that exist right now. Right now they are facing an increased financial burden, that is fact. Any legislative solution is nothing but hope. It does not exist nor is it in process. The legislature is not working right now, so they are not working on a solution. The idea that county officials cannot criticize the situation that exists now, the situation they must deal with, a situation that was concealed from them and created without their input, is laughable. The idea that county officials cannot criticize the situation that exists right now and are instead supposed to take on the work of those who created the situation, which they do not control, to make those who created the situation look better and somehow be “fair,” is even more ridiculous.

How many hypotheticals does one have to create before it is acceptable to criticize the situation that exists? Should county officials not start working on the situation that exists? Should they do nothing and keep quiet until the end of April in the hope that a solution appears by the end of the next session?
A slight reminder/clarification needs to jump in this discussion. The main one being it takes affect JUNE 2023. Not June 2022!
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
It’s my understanding that Osceola County already started evaluating the impact.

This creates a lot of extra work for something that’s probably not going to happen.
Money that the local tax payers will have to cover, regardless of what happens.

And it’s not just Osceola and Orange counties that are going to be impacted. What about the other districts set to be dissolved? Do they have the resources to study the issue? To absorb the district? Are the landowners or residents organized enough to properly negotiate a new district? Is there any chance that legal battles end with some districts still being dissolved?
 

mmascari

Well-Known Member
If RCID was dissolved some of that spend on needed infrastructure projects will come out TWDC capital spend budget and that could mean less spend on actual attractions. A few pages back I posted the example of the overpass project near MK park. If Disney still wanted to go forward with that project but RCID had been dissolved 5 years ago that spending could have replaced the Tron coaster or something else for the parks. Instead they got RCID to finance the road project through municipal bonds and it’s paid for over years in tax payments so no debt on the books of TWDC.
I used World Drive as an example earlier too, to show the big benefit Disney gets. Before everyone plowed on with taxes instead.

There's a third option besides Disney finance vs RCID finance, and having the choose the roadway vs an attraction. The roadway intersection redesign could have just not been done.

At the county level, the county deciding to redesign the intersection and all the roads to the West of MK. The county could just conclude that they're good enough for what's there now. That there was no need to redesign the interchange at all.

If that meant that the parking lot access had to deal with operational issues, too bad. If that means that a 15 year plan Disney has to build another resort on that side doesn't have needed infrastructure ahead of time, too bad. (Even if it's always 15 years from now, never closer.) This priority setting without having to publish an entire strategy. The ability to blur the line between what's an RCID vs private Disney road. Those are the real advantages Disney get's from RCID.

It's something only needed because of the size, and it definitely has an extra cost to have it. We've got no idea how much Disney values this benefit vs the cost. Presumably enough, or they would have tried to dissolve the district before.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
A slight reminder/clarification needs to jump in this discussion. The main one being it takes affect JUNE 2023. Not June 2022!
Figuring out how to essentially divide and absorb another county takes time. Nobody would have picked a 14 month start-to-finish timeline if this was actually planned. As of right now, the counties cannot seek legislative assistance until March 2023.
 

Vegas Disney Fan

Well-Known Member
It is not just theater. A law was passed. The expense of a special session was incurred. The counties now having to assume the responsibilities of the districts to be dissolved have to start figuring things out right now. People have to decide if they need to start looking for work. This is real and it’s impact on people has started.
I’ve read several articles stating the county still needs to vote to dissolve the district, the state can’t just do it alone. Time will tell.

You are correct that it’s going to cause a lot of planning headaches whether it happens or not, it’s also true that RCiDs ability to get bonds was also harmed.. I’ll be surprised if anything actually changes in 2023 though.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
I’ve read several articles stating the county still needs to vote to dissolve the district, the state can’t just do it alone. Time will tell.

You are correct that it’s going to cause a lot of planning headaches whether it happens or not, it’s also true that RCiDs ability to get bonds was also harmed.. I’ll be surprised if anything actually changes in 2023 though.
There is a question of whether or not the landowners need to vote, not the counties. The law seeks to not require this vote and it was not part of the original creation.

It’s not just a headache. It’s real harm, and it’s not just limited to those around the Reedy Creek Improvement District. There is no good reason to continue to try and trivialize poorly considered policy implemented for malicious purposes.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
I used World Drive as an example earlier too, to show the big benefit Disney gets. Before everyone plowed on with taxes instead.

There's a third option besides Disney finance vs RCID finance, and having the choose the roadway vs an attraction. The roadway intersection redesign could have just not been done.

At the county level, the county deciding to redesign the intersection and all the roads to the West of MK. The county could just conclude that they're good enough for what's there now. That there was no need to redesign the interchange at all.

If that meant that the parking lot access had to deal with operational issues, too bad. If that means that a 15 year plan Disney has to build another resort on that side doesn't have needed infrastructure ahead of time, too bad. (Even if it's always 15 years from now, never closer.) This priority setting without having to publish an entire strategy. The ability to blur the line between what's an RCID vs private Disney road. Those are the real advantages Disney get's from RCID.

It's something only needed because of the size, and it definitely has an extra cost to have it. We've got no idea how much Disney values this benefit vs the cost. Presumably enough, or they would have tried to dissolve the district before.
All true. If Disney was just a regular taxpayer they would need to get in line with everyone else to beg for funding for projects. Thats a downside for sure. The benefit is the county and all the other taxpayers will foot part of the bill. I gave the new road to Universal‘s park as an example earlier. They needed to negotiate with the county and ultimately compromised that the county pays half of the $315M and Universal pays half. Ironically since Disney pays taxes to Orange County they are indirectly paying for a portion of the new road to Universals new gate. If Disney wants a new road they don’t have to beg, but RCID foots the whole bill so is eventually paid for 100% by Disney.

The other major benefit to Disney is RCID can borrow money using municipal bonds and that debt stays off of the books of TWDC. The Universal road example was $315M for 2 miles of roads. WDW has 175 miles of roads. It’s a lot of infrastructure to build and maintain. So if Comcast wants to finance their share of the new road they add $150M of new debt to their balance sheet where Disney can finance projects without debt. Big benefit. When Disney built the parking garages at Disney Springs they financed the cost through RCID keeping $100M+ off of their balance sheet. Ultimately Disney paid down the debt through tax payments but the benefit of financing with municipal debt is huge. No way Orange County would agree to pay for a parking garage for a private business so it’s a benefit.
 

BuzzedPotatoHead89

Well-Known Member
14 months is still an insufficient amount of time for this to be resolved particularly since no practical steps will be taken until after November.

If the legislature is serious about actually revisiting this they will need to likely revisit this again during regular session in 2023 that would indefinitely delay the June 2023 dissolution of RCID and craft an actual study commission to revisit this that would repeal the current act and provide a 24 month study commission. Likely to be overseen by a third party contracting firm with representatives from Disney, the Florida state Chamber of commerce (who I can imagine is unimpressed with this behind the scenes), both county governments, Orlando local governments and the respective unions of public works and service workers whose contracts would be impacted.

Of course as part of this the commission would release its findings to the legislature before a second “formal” (non-show) vote.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
There is a question of whether or not the landowners need to vote, not the counties. The law seeks to not require this vote and it was not part of the original creation.

It’s not just a headache. It’s real harm, and it’s not just limited to those around the Reedy Creek Improvement District. There is no good reason to continue to try and trivialize poorly considered policy implemented for malicious purposes.
I wonder how DVC would factor into that. Since almost a quarter of taxes paid to RCID come from DVC owners would they get a vote? In a practical sense they don’t own the land since it goes back to Disney after x number of years but they are paying real estate taxes as if they are land owners and a deed is generated when you buy in.
 

Vegas Disney Fan

Well-Known Member
The statute terminating RCID is worded in such a way as to negate the requirement that landowners vote.
I’d read that also but there’s some question whether it’ll stand a legal challenge.

Legislation with no planning or forethought is destined to be a legal minefield, this one being a perfect example, no one knows who pays for what, who acquires the debt, if it’s even possible without a vote… just bad on every level because it was done fast and poorly.
 

LuvtheGoof

Grill Master
Premium Member
I wonder how DVC would factor into that. Since almost a quarter of taxes paid to RCID come from DVC owners would they get a vote? In a practical sense they don’t own the land since it goes back to Disney after x number of years but they are paying real estate taxes as if they are land owners and a deed is generated when you buy in.
Well, if RCID is gone, then our property taxes go down, and the county can't add that back in. We pay the proper amount to the counties already.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Well, if RCID is gone, then our property taxes go down, and the county can't add that back in. We pay the proper amount to the counties already.
I posted about this a few pages back. DVCnews.com had a little write-up. In summary about half the taxes paid by DVC owners goes to RCID. That goes away. The estimate is that if Orange County had to absorb most of the cost budget of RCID they would need to raise taxes on all taxpayers by 25%. So roughly a 37% decrease in total taxes paid by DVC owners. Do I think it’s likely that actually happens? No, but if nothing else changes, RCID is dissolved and the counties absorb the costs that’s what the math says would happen.
 

LuvtheGoof

Grill Master
Premium Member
I posted about this a few pages back. DVCnews.com had a little write-up. In summary about half the taxes paid by DVC owners goes to RCID. That goes away. The estimate is that if Orange County had to absorb most of the cost budget of RCID they would need to raise taxes on all taxpayers by 25%. So roughly a 37% decrease in total taxes paid. Do I think it’s likely that actually happens? No, but if nothing else changes, RCID is dissolved and the counties absorb the costs that’s what the math says would happen.
Sorry that I missed that. I don't visit this thread often.
 

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