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

[GoofGoof]

So there are 1844 special districts. Plenty to research if anyone wishes to do so,

If you go back several hundred pages someone posted a link to a site that has all of the special districts and you can filter on type of district, whether they have taxing authority and whether the board is elected the vast majority of districts with taxing authority have an elected board. Makes sense since our country was founded on the basis of no taxation without representation. There were some districts that had taxing authority and also a government appointed board but in those cases the district required that the appointed board members be landowners of the district. We could not find an example of a district with taxing authority and a government appointed board where the board members could be selected from people who don’t reside in the district. This would be the first.

 

[GoofGoof]

There was an original article in April of 2022 on line that stated 5 other Districts would effected by the bill that was signed.

Those other districts were dissolved too in the original bill. That was based solely on the date formed.

 

[MR.Dis]

So the Special Session will be next week. If Disney comes out right away with a strong statement that they are fighting, well I will be dead wrong. The thing is even if Disney does not respond right away, it still does not mean anything as they may just wait until later to disclose they are fighting. It may not be until June of 2023 before we know exactly how Disney will handle Florida's decision on how to handle Reedy Creek going forward.

 

[MR.Dis]

If you go back several hundred pages someone posted a link to a site that has all of the special districts and you can filter on type of district, whether they have taxing authority and whether the board is elected the vast majority of districts with taxing authority have an elected board. Makes sense since our country was founded on the basis of no taxation without representation. There were some districts that had taxing authority and also a government appointed board but in those cases the district required that the appointed board members be landowners of the district. We could not find an example of a district with taxing authority and a government appointed board where the board members could be selected from people who don’t reside in the district. This would be the first.

Yes, not to be argumentative but Disney owns All the land -- no individual land owners, just a corporation. I am not an attorney, I just wonder how this effects the your issue.

 

[JoeCamel]

So the Special Session will be next week. If Disney comes out right away with a strong statement that they are fighting, well I will be dead wrong. The thing is even if Disney does not respond right away, it still does not mean anything as they may just wait until later to disclose they are fighting. It may not be until June of 2023 before we know exactly how Disney will handle Florida's decision on how to handle Reedy Creek going forward.

I for one will be standing by until you can come back and school all these people who have this useless discussion going on since the law was passed. They were just spinning their wheels until you came along to let everyone know what they are missing and to apply your flawless logic to the state (Ronnie) deciding to co-opt a special legislative session called for the express purpose of addressing the insurance problems in the state.

 

[JohnD]

So the Special Session will be next week. If Disney comes out right away with a strong statement that they are fighting, well I will be dead wrong. The thing is even if Disney does not respond right away, it still does not mean anything as they may just wait until later to disclose they are fighting. It may not be until June of 2023 before we know exactly how Disney will handle Florida's decision on how to handle Reedy Creek going forward.

There is no special session. Committees are meeting before the regular session which begins March 7.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Yes, not to be argumentative but Disney owns All the land -- no individual land owners, just a corporation. I am not an attorney, I just wonder how this effects the your issue.

This is not true.

Interactive Mapping

 

[lazyboy97o]

There is no special session. Committees are meeting before the regular session which begins March 7.

The governor’s press secretary said a special session will be called.

 

[JohnD]

The governor’s press secretary said a special session will be called.

Okay. Waiting to see how that will work with regular session right around the corner starting March 7 then for 60 days.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The real question is what does the "new" Capitol building with a 22 floor tower and domes for each chamber represent exactly?
View attachment 696180

Currently?

It seems obvious it is focused on a list of “priorities” that have nothing to do with its state.

Florida had a pretty Simple focus for the last 75 years: lure wealth and business from other parts of the country/world while capitalizing on its natural advantages due to climate and geography.

Seems simple, right?

Telling Disney that they can’t control walt Disney world and using strawman arguments helps no Florida residents.

I’ll wait for any valid counter argument…cause there isn’t one.

And remember: I’m not easy on disney
Not at TALL

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

There was an original article in April of 2022 on line that stated 5 other Districts would effected by the bill that was signed.

Ok…

So let’s get a list of those five scenarios and how/what would be affected?

Would it involve blowing up the largest all ages vacation destination in the most wealthy country on the planet and throwing two (minimum) of your most populous counties into uncertainty/budget disarray?

Having a hard time coming up with “similarities” here

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

So the Special Session will be next week. If Disney comes out right away with a strong statement that they are fighting, well I will be dead wrong. The thing is even if Disney does not respond right away, it still does not mean anything as they may just wait until later to disclose they are fighting. It may not be until June of 2023 before we know exactly how Disney will handle Florida's decision on how to handle Reedy Creek going forward.

Well in this case there is no “coincidence” on timing

A certain company with a certain stock problem is facing a public battle for control in March.

And guess where it’s biggest cash cows grazes?

On the planet

 

[mmascari]

There was an original article in April of 2022 on line that stated 5 other Districts would effected by the bill that was signed.

And water is wet. What do either of these have to do with the question you replied too?

This isn’t really a “do your own research” kind of thread. Site some facts, or go home.

 

[GoofGoof]

Yes, not to be argumentative but Disney owns All the land -- no individual land owners, just a corporation. I am not an attorney, I just wonder how this effects the your issue.

Technically not true. Disney is by far the largest landowner, but not the only one. Direct from the RCID site:

Reedy Creek Improvement District (the “District”) is a progressive form of government, created in 1967 by a special Act of the Florida Legislature, the purpose of which is to support and administer certain aspects of the economic development and tourism within District boundaries. With an administration office located on Hotel Plaza Boulevard in Lake Buena Vista, the District encompasses approximately 25,000 acres in both Orange and Osceola counties, servicing 19 landowners, including Walt Disney Co. and its wholly-owned affiliates. RCID operates in accordance with its Charter and Chapter 189, Florida Statutes, The Uniform Special Districts Accountability Act. Additional information contained in legislation.

In my opinion it doesn’t matter how many land owners there are. If it’s 1, 19 or 1 million there should be no taxation without representation. If a government is going to assess taxes then the taxpayers or their elected representatives have a right to decide how those funds will be spent.

Since you asked the question, if Disney was the sole landowner in the district why should that matter? The district collects taxes and then provides municipal services. There is no harm to anyone outside of the district since they pay nothing. The landowners of RCID (mainly Disney) pay the same amount of taxes to the local counties as any other taxpayer so they aren’t avoiding taxes. What is the perceived harm that RCID causes. Why has nobody in the government solved this “problem” for the first 50 years the district existed. Why is it an issue now? I think we all know that answer but just curious what the spin will be.

 

[mikejs78]

Put another way, special districts are units of local, special-purpose government. They are similar to municipalities and counties. The main difference, according to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, are municipalities and counties have broad powers and provide local general governmental services;

The district also includes two general purpose governments in Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake.

 

[mysto]

The district also includes two general purpose governments in Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake.

"general purpose government"

That is an interesting phrase.

Plug and play? Turnkey solution?

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

So the Special Session will be next week. If Disney comes out right away with a strong statement that they are fighting, well I will be dead wrong. The thing is even if Disney does not respond right away, it still does not mean anything as they may just wait until later to disclose they are fighting. It may not be until June of 2023 before we know exactly how Disney will handle Florida's decision on how to handle Reedy Creek going forward.

Iger is too politically savvy to get pulled into a public feud with DeSantis like Chapek did, I’ll be shocked if we get anything beyond a very scripted public statement stating how they look forward to working with their partners (or maybe friends) in Tallahassee to resolve the issue.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Okay. Waiting to see how that will work with regular session right around the corner starting March 7 then for 60 days.

It was mentioned above, and I have no idea if it's true, nor the time to determine if it's true, BUT...

A special session does away with certain regular order rules, like debate, which allows laws to be more easily railroaded... oops, I mean, which allows laws to be responded to more quickly in emergency situations.

So, it's not the timing of the session, but what the kind of session allows to happen.

In this clearly very emergency situation.

I think.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

It was mentioned above, and I have no idea if it's true, nor the time to determine if it's true, BUT...

A special session does away with certain regular order rules, like debate, which allows laws to be more easily railroaded... oops, I mean, which allows laws to be responded to more quickly in emergency situations.

So, it's not the timing of the session, but what the kind of session allows to happen.

In this clearly very emergency situation.

I think.

It’s absolutely an emergency…I mean…this has run fine since 1967…

Gotta “nip it in the bud” now

 

[GoofGoof]

It was mentioned above, and I have no idea if it's true, nor the time to determine if it's true, BUT...

A special session does away with certain regular order rules, like debate, which allows laws to be more easily railroaded... oops, I mean, which allows laws to be responded to more quickly in emergency situations.

So, it's not the timing of the session, but what the kind of session allows to happen.

In this clearly very emergency situation.

I think.

Technically speaking they passed the original bill to dissolve RCID without any real plan and it goes into effect in June so we are fast approaching an emergency situation. It’s a self made emergency but they do actually need to do something before June. I agree 100% on the special session point. This is clearly being done to hide the true plan until it’s been adopted. If they allowed actual debate and discussion the first time around maybe they wouldn’t need to undo the last knee jerk reaction. History repeating itself.