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

[mikejs78]

Disney really should learn to just focus on their business and not create such a mess in the PR world these days. Regardless of any side you are on, this and other bad PR things over the last few years all could have been avoided and they keep doing it to themselves

No. That's like blaming the person for getting shot who happened to be walking through a rough neighborhood. Sorry it does not excuse the behavior here.

 

[Brian]

It's been said that the legislation passed last year actually doesn't apply to RCID because of the way it was written.

It would be rather funny if a court agreed, because the legislation obviously wasn't predicated on shutting down the Marion County Law Library.

 

[GhostHost1000]

No. That's like blaming the person for getting shot who happened to be walking through a rough neighborhood. Sorry it does not excuse the behavior here.

Reedy Creek wouldn’t even be in the news much less being disputed/challenged if they hadn’t stepped in it

 

[mikejs78]

Reedy Creek wouldn’t even be in the news much less being disputed/challenged if they hadn’t stepped in it

No. Disney has the right to say what they want about any political issue without fear of state retaliation. Full stop. No excuses, no blame the victim.

 

[lentesta]

So multiple people have created multiple burner accounts that they keep track of for years just for the eventual lulz?

Your faith in humanity is inspirational. I know for certain this exact multi-year strategy has been run on other boards. But that's another topic.

 

[GhostHost1000]

No. Disney has the right to say what they want about any political issue without fear of state retaliation. Full stop. No excuses, no blame the victim.

Of course they have the right to say what they want, we all do, but with that can come consequences as well. Disney should just stay in their lane regardless of their positions on things outside running their company. They have enough problems to worry about right now before they create new ones.

 

[Dranth]

Disney really should learn to just focus on their business and not create such a mess in the PR world these days. Regardless of any side you are on, this and other bad PR things over the last few years all could have been avoided and they keep doing it to themselves

Disagree. They should be allowed to be as political as they want without fear of government retaliation until the laws are changed that allow for corporations to do/say what they want. It is up to the consumer to "punish" or "reward" a company, not any level of government.

 

[GhostHost1000]

Disagree. They should be allowed to be as political as they want without fear of government retaliation until the laws are changed that allow for corporations to do/say what they want. It is up to the consumer to "punish" or "reward" a company, not any level of government.

Agreed, but they were basically still “getting away” with having reedy creek advantages…and they could have revoked that a long time ago. It wouldn’t even be questioned now if they hadn’t made a mess for themselves. I don’t care what side you are on or what you believe, Disney would have less problems in the world if they didn’t create most of their own problems.

 

[mikejs78]

but with that can come consequences as well

Sure. Consequences such as private citizens organizing boycotts. Consequences such as people deciding not to spend their money with Disney. Consequences such as negative PR, people criticizing them in public, etc. Those are all expected and reasonable consequences that any company should expect based on their actions or speech.

Retaliation by the government is *not* a legitimate consequence. It's expressly prohibited by the first amendment of the Constitution. It's the Governor and FL legislature who should stay in *their* lane here. What this is amounts toman abuse of power, full stop.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Of course they have the right to say what they want, we all do, but with that can come consequences as well.

Consequence from customers? OK

Consequences from people in your government who use the power of the government to punish you?

 

[lazyboy97o]

You can, however, file a lawsuit over enacted legislation (that being the legislation which dissolves RCID in June).

There are very good arguments that that law does not apply to the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which means there would be no standing. I honestly cannot explain the lack of action by any party, especially bond holders.

I'm inclined to agree with you. However, if only the state can create a special district, and if Disney wishes to have a special district, they have to engage with the state, or file a lawsuit to attempt to overturn the legislation which dissolves RCID in June.

In today's political climate, and given his personality, DeSantis isn't just going to roll over and give Disney back RCID. He couldn't even if he wanted to, politically speaking. The most I can see Disney securing is a split board like I described; I can't see DeSantis signing off on a plan which gives Disney appointees majority control, and if DeSantis isn't on board, I'm almost positive a majority of the legislature won't be either, given the new supermajority the GOP has. And then there's his veto power...

Disney doesn’t need a new district to be created, they just need to maintain the one that exists. I think Disney absolutely has a long fight ahead of them, because this does go beyond one individual, and that’s exactly why they need to fight. Not fighting now just sets the precedent that this is something that works to get Disney to do as desired.

Seriously, how does Disney respond to a new attraction not being allowed to start construction or open because of the content of a movie? What leverage does Disney have to get the attraction approved? The state appointed board members don’t care that the project isn’t happening. They lose nothing by being uncooperative. You can’t have some sort of penalty for not approving projects because that means you hinder the ability to make good faith objections.

 

[GhostHost1000]

What mess? A mess with the governor and his legislative party?

The governor and his party are defiling the democratic government we all live under by using the power of their office to punish an organization whose views they don't like. That is a clear violation of the 1st Amendment.

If you 'get into a mess' by simply expressing a political point of view over pending legislation and someone in the government doesn't like you doing that and thus targets you; and they misuse their power to harass you and cause harm to you, will you just shrug and say "I guess I shouldn't have stepped into it."?

At the end of the day, neither side should be doing or have done what they are doing or have done. 2 wrongs don’t make a right yet here we are. Again, this all could have been avoided. And for the record I don’t agree with them coming after Reedy Creek and Disney, all I’m saying is they created their own problem

 

[mikejs78]

but they were basically still “getting away” with having reedy creek advantages

Again this vastly misstates what Reedy Creek is and why it exists.

 

[GhostHost1000]

EXPRESSING A POLITICAL OPONION IS NOT A WRONG. It's the bedrock of our democracy.

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I didn’t say it was wrong, or even that I don’t agree with them, I just said Disney created their own problem.

Run Disney. Companies don’t need to be expressing political opinions if they don’t want to make a mess of things with the country so divided

 

[lazyboy97o]

At the end of the day, neither side should be doing or have done what they are doing or have done. 2 wrongs don’t make a right yet here we are. Again, this all could have been avoided. And for the record I don’t agree with them coming after Reedy Creek and Disney, all I’m saying is they created their own problem

What Disney did was not wrong. Flat out. There was only one wrong.

You claim you don’t agree, but you sure love to repeat the falsehoods around the District.

 

[mikejs78]

I didn’t say it was wrong, or even that I don’t agree with them, I just said Disney created their own problem.

Run Disney.

You said "two wrongs don't make a right". Yet there is only one wrong here, the actions of the current Governor of FL and the state legislature.

 

[GhostHost1000]

What Disney did was not wrong. Flat out. There was only one wrong.

You claim you don’t agree, but you sure love to repeat the falsehoods around the District.

They are/were both wrong imo. Again, all could have been avoided that’s my point.

Disney needs to focus on running their company, not politics, period. They can say what they want but the country is too divided to be playing that game if they don’t think there will be any bad PR somewhere along the way regardless of their side of the fence

 

[lazyboy97o]

Your faith in humanity is inspirational. I know for certain this exact multi-year strategy has been run on other boards. But that's another topic.

You can’t dangle a carrot like that and just walk away!

 

[GoofGoof]

Wasn’t the decision to move to Lake Nona partially a response to Disney fighting with CA over Covid policies?

Disney has somehow ended up in 2 of the most hostile states to do business in, at this point they may want to look at land in a new state (preferably purple) and move everything there that isn’t bolted to the ground.

Yeah, sad to see a state like FL become more hostile towards business than even CA. Strange times. Anyone even considering moving anything to FL has to be on pause at this point. If they are willing to go to these lengths to damage the top employer in the state and major catalyst for their #1 industry imagine if you are just “some average company”.

 

[MisterPenguin]

At the end of the day, neither side should be doing or have done what they are doing or have done. 2 wrongs don’t make a right yet here we are. Again, this all could have been avoided. And for the record I don’t agree with them coming after Reedy Creek and Disney, all I’m saying is they created their own problem

You don't like Disney's politics. That's OK. You think it's wrong? That's OK.

But what the gov/legislature is doing is unconstitutional and vindictive. That's more than disagreeing. It's an attempt to cause real harm to a business (so much for the free market). The 1st Amendment is there to stop this very specific thing.

Not to mention how stupidly and incompetently they're going about it.