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

lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
JoeCamel said:
They need to lobby the counties to get the TP zoning established before they need it. With that as an available category they have a fall back position.
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The big thing that’s been brought up here and there but largely ignored is the cities. They haven’t been touched. The District has authority to control zoning because it has been delegated to them by the cities. A lot of the District’s authority and powers are delegated from the cities.
 
LAKid53

LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
GoofGoof said:
The debt is a drop in the bucket for Disney. They were going to pay it back anyway over time with tax payments to RCID so even if the state somehow found a way to legally make them pay the bonds back it would just be a timing difference. They won’t bankrupt a business making billions to avoid paying less than a billion in debt sooner than expected.

Even a new special district not under Disney control would need to justify their expenditures and follow applicable law. They can’t just tax Disney and then use the money for other purposes. The main issue for Disney would be lack of control over quality and cost. They would no longer control fire services and EMS so the new district could decide to cut corners and have less equipment or less personnel. Same with road repairs or expansion projects. I think the zoning benefit is more hype than actual benefit. If anything Disney is following more stringent codes than what would be required by the state. It’s an easy talking point to say Disney is avoiding code and zoning regulations but it’s not really true. Just likes it’s easy to say they are not paying their fair share of taxes when in reality they pay more than most other taxpayers.
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This "TWDC is paying less in taxes" is utter nonsense and I don't get where people got that from. TWDC pays property taxes to both Orange & Osceola Counties, tax levied by RCID and corporate income tax. And like other major businesses in the state, it gets some sort of tax "break" on corporate taxes. You think FPL, Big Sugar (that's the name of the corporation, not a broad reference to the industry) and other major corporations don't?
 
LAKid53

LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
lazyboy97o said:
The big thing that’s been brought up here and there but largely ignored is the cities. They haven’t been touched. The District has authority to control zoning because it has been delegated to them by the cities. A lot of the District’s authority and powers are delegated from the cities.
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Are you referring to Bay Lake, Lake Buena Vista and Celebration?
 
LAKid53

LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
rio said:
Depends on how punitive the taxes and special assessments levied by the state of Florida would be, assuming it was deemed constitutional. Don’t want to change your entire corporate structure to stop “wokeness”, tax rate of 50% for you. It was already 50, let’s make it 60.

Assuming Disney was forced to pay for the entire debt load of RCID as well, I could totally see Disney making the parks unprofitable and declaring bankruptcy to close them down. State of Florida’s asking for the ability to govern a company or pay punitive fines if they don’t comply, but they can’t stop them from simply not operating or existing.
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I believe Disney is already paying that, via taxes assessed by RCID. The only thing that would change is the timeframe of that repayment.
 
lentesta

lentesta

Premium Member
GoofGoof said:
There is precedent in FL for special districts being formed and the government appointing the board as opposed to having the landowners elect the board, but in those cases the district’s primary source of income was government funding Not a special tax assessed on landowners. This is common for districts governing hospitals/medical centers for example. When we pulled up the list of special districts in FL with government appointed boards we could not find 1 that had taxing authority as well. Basic concept of no taxation without representation. If RCID is replaced with a new special district with taxing authority and government appointed board members it will be the first if it’s kind. As I said in the previous post it seems very unlikely to be legal.
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I did similar research and agree. Getting everything the governor wants would result in a district unlike any other in the state. And it wasn’t clear it would comply with other aspects of FL law.
 
LAKid53

LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
lentesta said:
I did similar research and agree. Getting everything the governor wants would result in a district unlike any other in the state. And it wasn’t clear it would comply with other aspects of FL law.
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My concern is that those in the Legislature less knowledgeable about Florida law will push through a new district that will result in years of litigation that we Florida taxpayers will end up paying for.
 
peter11435

peter11435

Well-Known Member
LAKid53 said:
Further complicating, then, the dissolution of RCID.
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Yes. Because those who initiated this weren’t really concerned with facts or learning how and why the district operated and functioned. They still think they did a good thing.

If the district really was problematic, or was abusing its powers, or violating its charter, or actually needed to be dissolved… all of which there is no evidence of and the legislature failed to provide evidence of… they could have addressed it logically, thoughtfully, and patiently. Instead they chose the worst possible option.
 
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Tony the Tigger

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
LAKid53 said:
Those increases on sales taxes were by county, not the entire state. And had to be for very specific purposes outlined in the ballot measures - schools, roads and other important infrastructure. That increase is limited by law and has an expiration. A state wide measure to impose a state sales tax won't pass. They couldn't get a services tax into law. What makes you think an income tax will pass with 60% approval?
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The point was people voting to raise taxes on themselves.

The argument will be: if you don’t vote for this, property taxes will double and services will be cut.
 
LAKid53

LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
Tony the Tigger said:
The point was people voting to raise taxes on themselves.

The argument will be: if you don’t vote for this, property taxes will double and services will be cut.
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Orange County sales tax is currently 6.5%. The proposed penny increase from 6.5% to 7.5%, mainly for transportation, failed on November's ballot, 58% to 42%.
 
Sirwalterraleigh

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
Kamikaze said:
I don't think you even realize how many jobs revolve around WDW. Not only the 60k Disney CMs, but all the jobs that revolve around Disney guests and those 60k CMs. The Florida economy would not survive the closure of WDW.
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1. The only way they’ll ever close is if it’s underwater or they run it into the ground (stay tuned on both)
2. Orlando doesn’t exist without wdw. The locals try to convince themselves this isn’t true…they’re wrong.
 

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