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

[Tha Realest]

Yeah, I don't think you want to discuss Rebekah Jones today, considering what DeSantis did to her child a couple days ago.

The Governor stole her kids phone and made death threats against his classmates?

 

[lazyboy97o]

What would the point be? They can't just create taxes and hold onto the money. They need a reason to tax and spend, and they can't run surpluses at the end of fiscal years.

Retribution and control.

They would have to, if the legislature did void the agreement. But they have no legal standing to do so, and doing so would open all other such agreements to being void. They can't specifically say 'we only void the agreement Disney made'.

Legislatures aren't supposed to decide law, just enact them. The judiciary would see this as a clear overstep of their boundaries.

They’ve already shown a willingness to ignore legal boundaries.

 

[LAKid53]

The roads that serve WDW are mostly owned and controlled by RCID and the new board would have to impose these tolls right? So wouldn’t the toll revenue go to the district and not the state? If the toll revenue went to the district and the district has to maintain a mostly balanced budget wouldn’t this actually result in a decrease in Disney’s tax bill?

As far as hotel taxes go for the local portion isn’t it the county that collects that tax? I don’t think the Governor can change that it would have to come from the county. Even if they add an additional local hotel tax collected by the district I think he has the same problem as tolls then. For the State portion of the hotel tax is it possible to only raise hotel taxes on specific hotels? Wouldn’t he need to raise state hotel taxes on all hotels in the state?

The Florida Constitution prohibits taxing one entity while not taxing other same entities without....a special district. Would OCTOD have the legal authority to impose a bed tax, above what Orange County imposes, on Disney hotels? Would doing that be within its purview?

I don't believe RCID owns most of the roads within WDW. The roads leading directly into the parks are private roads, though. And does the Florida Constitution allow a special district to create toll roads or is that only under the power of the Florida Legislature?

 

[lazyboy97o]

The roads that serve WDW are mostly owned and controlled by RCID and the new board would have to impose these tolls right? So wouldn’t the toll revenue go to the district and not the state? If the toll revenue went to the district and the district has to maintain a mostly balanced budget wouldn’t this actually result in a decrease in Disney’s tax bill?

As far as hotel taxes go for the local portion isn’t it the county that collects that tax? I don’t think the Governor can change that it would have to come from the county. Even if they add an additional local hotel tax collected by the district I think he has the same problem as tolls then. For the State portion of the hotel tax is it possible to only raise hotel taxes on specific hotels? Wouldn’t he need to raise state hotel taxes on all hotels in the state?

There are provisions in the reconstitution of the District that allow roads to be handed over to FDOT.

 

[lentesta]

If I'm reading the Florida Statues correctly, any additional toll revenue imposed on RCID/CFTOD roads would:

• First go to maintaining those roads
• Then to the county they're in

Am I reading this right? Because that sounds like it shifts the cost of maintaining the roads to taxpayers from Disney.

 

[Angel Ariel]

If he puts toll roads surrounding WDW
I’d be sure to leave a nice brochure in every single hotel room on property explaining where the Ronnie Road Tax came from. How long does this have to drag out before his term is up?

Unless the legislature changes the law for him, looks like DeSantis has to resign if he wants to run for President:

Florida leaders are considering a change to the 'resign to run' law to help Gov. Ron DeSantis

New House and Senate leaders want to consider changes to a "resign to run" law to clear the path for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to run for president without giving up his post.

news.wfsu.org

 

[GoofGoof]

Domestic Parks & Resorts depreciation was $13.7B for the last 10 years. Take into account inflation for the next 10 years and most of what Disney is going to spend at WDW for the next 10 years is just upkeep.

It costs a lot of money to maintain WDW facilities.

As far as crowds, the room discounts and weak direct DVC sales point to Disney pricing people out of the full WDW experience. Rather than sacrifice their WDW trips, Guests are moving offsite in order to pay for higher theme park ticket prices and Genie+. As Iger has acknowledged, Disney increased prices too much.

But they have added stuff as well in the last decade. Not just upkeep. Fantasyland expansion, Pandora land, Star Wars Land, Great Mickey ride, Rat, Guardians of the Universe of Energy, Tron I’m sure there’s more I’m not thinking of and that also doesn’t include anything added at DLR or the cruise line which are also included in the Domestic Park 13.7B. They also said they project adding 13,000 jobs which is around an 18% increase in labor. Some of that is still finishing ramping up from Covid but that’s still a lot of jobs to add if they were not expecting any growth and just upkeep.

I don’t disagree on the pricing. I think price increases combined with a lack of “free Covid money” from the government could result in some softening of demand although we haven’t seen too much so far. None of that has anything to do with RCID.

 

[Tha Realest]

The post I responded to was specifically saying that Disney‘s competitors were growing and thriving while Disney deals with this situation. I see no evidence of that being the case. None. If Disney was so greatly impacted they wouldn’t be talking about expanding. I agree we don’t know what the $17B will be spent on or if it actually gets spent, but if the spend results in 13,000 new jobs it has to be more than just maintenance and infrastructure spend.

As far as softening demand, if it is happening do you really believe that’s the result of the conflict with RCID?

No. I’ve never said the demand is softening due to disputes with the state. While TWDC is a monolith, I do think disparate pieces - parks vs theatrical, for example - perform differently. I do think over the last 6-12 months the drag on the company has been the movie/TV/D+ side of things and the parks have punched above their weight. I do think that gravity is taking hold and the parks are in for a bit of trouble. As far as the $17bn “projection” of “investment” (whatever that nebulous claim means) I am having trouble squaring that with numerous project cancellations, active firings, and various cost cutting measures that we’re seeing happen today.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The existence of the 'Don't Say Gay' bill is what started the whole thing. Ronnie didn't create the bill, sure, but as the quasi-'King of Florida' that he rules the state gov with, he is the face of it. Even though it wasn't his legislation.

I’m shocked that anyone still comes on here and debates the sequence of events and motivations…

…not that hard, people

 

[lewisc]

.DeSantis is now talking about tolls, hotel taxes and non Disney development.

Can we assume the Harvard attorney doesn't think he has a realistic shot of reversing the outgoing boards actions?

 

[GoofGoof]

There are provisions in the reconstitution of the District that allow roads to be handed over to FDOT.

Maybe that’s the play, but then does the state then have to maintain the roads which again is a tax break for Disney.

If I'm reading the Florida Statues correctly, any additional toll revenue imposed on RCID/CFTOD roads would:

• First go to maintaining those roads
• Then to the county they're in

Am I reading this right? Because that sounds like it shifts the cost of maintaining the roads to taxpayers from Disney.

If that’s how it works it seems like a win for Disney at the cost of their employees mostly and tourists who drive. So a tourist from out of state who normally rents a car may be less likely to rent a car if the roads all have tolls. So that hurts the car rental industry and all other local businesses including Disney’s biggest competitors and benefits Disney. Can they charge Disney busses a toll too? If the bus tolls were more than the tax savings for Disney I suppose it could be considered a punishment but this seems like really reaching.

 

[Piebald]

Why does this clown hate Disney so much? What did they do at his wedding to p*ss him off so much?

 

[lentesta]

As far as softening demand, if it is happening do you really believe that’s the result of the conflict with RCID?

I am 100% certain Disney thinks some of the softening demand is due to politics.

I strongly believe there's internal research that says Disney is losing customers in two segments:

• Young families, because of cost
• "Over 50's", because of politics

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The Florida Constitution prohibits taxing one entity while not taxing other same entities without....a special district. Would OCTOD have the legal authority to impose a bed tax, above what Orange County imposes, on Disney hotels? Would doing that be within its purview?

I don't believe RCID owns most of the roads within WDW. The roads leading directly into the parks are private roads, though. And does the Florida Constitution allow a special district to create toll roads or is that only under the power of the Florida Legislature?

Kinda why you don’t kick the hornets on this in the first place, huh?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Why does this clown hate Disney so much? What did they do at his wedding to p*ss him off so much?

He’s doing it for political graft and power…

They’re a big name, easy target to the fringes.

So it’s about money…to put it succinctly



…they also said his wife “didn’t fit the profile” of a face character…even though she plays dress up like one everyday

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Why does this clown hate Disney so much? What did they do at his wedding to p*ss him off so much?

They put out a single press release like 2 years ago that hurt his feewings.

 

[Zummi Gummi]

Unless the legislature changes the law for him, looks like DeSantis has to resign if he wants to run for President:

Florida leaders are considering a change to the 'resign to run' law to help Gov. Ron DeSantis

New House and Senate leaders want to consider changes to a "resign to run" law to clear the path for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to run for president without giving up his post.

news.wfsu.org

He’s already quietly filed legislation to do away with that.

Florida may be reworking laws to allow DeSantis to run for president while maintaining position as governor

GOP leadership will likely be attempting to rewrite the law as they did for former governors Scott and Crist to allow them to run for federal office while maintaining the flexibility to be governor.

www.wesh.com

 

[lewisc]

Unless the legislature changes the law for him, looks like DeSantis has to resign if he wants to run for President

Is there any doubt the legislator will pass such a law, as soon as DeSantis gives the thumbs up?

 

[Piebald]

They put out a single press release like 2 years ago that hurt his feewings.

I know but he got married there so clearly his wife or his in laws are big Disney nerds. Just seems very weird.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Is there any doubt the legislator will pass such a law, as soon as DeSantis gives the thumbs up?

From a previous post in this thread the current session only goes til May 5th and they have got the budget still to tackle..

I expect they will try to push it through as quietly as possible, but seems like from posters here in FL that media is constantly on the lookout for this specifically so I’m sure we’ll all hear about it.