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

[GoofGoof]

A coworker brought up DeSantis last night at work and kind of put this in a new perspective for me, he was excited Trump had competition and was hoping DeSantis could get the nomination, I said I was excited too but he’d lost me over the Disney feud, and my coworker said “what Disney feud?” He had absolutely no clue it even existed.

We are all paying close attention to this because we’re Disney fans but I suspect a lot of (if not most) people have never given it a single thought.

100% agree. That’s also why that poll to me is bogus. If you offered “don’t know“ as a 3rd option my guess is that gets the majority of the votes. Given only yes or no people with no actual knowledge read the words given (which were slanted) and they picked.

I actually think the “prison joke” was a terrible idea for DeSantis. A lot of the national coverage I’ve seen revolves around that threat. A lot of non-news sources were mocking him for it. People here who strongly back the Governor are insisting it was a joke but the national media has picked it up and run with it. Nobody cares about a petty dispute over a contract but when the headline is DeSantis threatening to build prison at WDW it makes him seem unhinged and irrational at a time when many Americans were hoping for an adult in the room. It may play well to the base but he needs more than the base to win in a national election. It also may hurt contributions from wealthy donors who don't really care about social issue crusades but do care about the candidate being pro-business.

 

[GoofGoof]

I’m sure the DOD is pretty chill about not having a say in surrounding development.

They don’t have a say in devolving their own resort either. They also get a lot of the on property perks for guests at the resort so I doubt they wouldn’t back Disney in this case.

 

[peter11435]

The list of RCID landowners was posted here a while back. I believe there were somewhere around 25 listed but I don’t remember seeing DoD on the list. Maybe it’s a shell company that owns for DoD. Either way I agree that they may not be considered “affected” since they do not control development.

Palm Hospitality

 

[GoofGoof]

Palm Hospitality

Orange County Property Appraiser

ocpaweb.ocpafl.org

That is who is listed on the property record.

1950 Magnolia Palm Dr 15-24-27-0000-00-004
Name(s):
Us Army Morale Welfare Recreation Fund
Physical Street Address:
1950 Magnolia Palm Dr
Property Use:
8800 - Federal (Other)
Mailing Address On File:
C/O Palm Hospitality Co 2461 Eisenhower Ave
Alexandria, VA 22331
Incorrect Mailing Address?
Postal City and Zip:
Bay Lake, FL 32830
Municipality:
Bay Lake
Property Name:
Shades Of Green Resort

Upload Photos
View 2022 Property Record Card

 

[seascape]

Will you be able to come to the RCID meeting Wednesday?

I wish I could. I am in Charlotte County and having work done on out Condo Wednesday. I know the Board would want to hear from me as I have nothing positive to say about them. I think as a DVC owner they want to rip up off. They don't care about the Disney fans and keeping the Disney bubble because if they did they would have asked the FDOT rep why is the land along the roads in WDW kept perfect while the land of FDOT roads outside are not. They also would have asked the State ride inspectors why a ride outside WDW could have been allowed to make an adjustment their ride specifications directly leading to the death of a pop Warner football player. Obviously the state does a terrible job of enforcing safety standards

 

[Stripes]

Why was the BOS agenda packet for 2-8-23 just updated on Friday? It looks substantially smaller than what was there before. And it’s not clear what was posted in advance of meetings as required by FL law.

View attachment 711968

They seem to have taken out Exhibit E temporarily. Not sure why. I have a copy of the original if they make any changes.

 

[mkt]

They seem to have taken out Exhibit E temporarily. Not sure why. I have a copy of the original if they make any changes.

What was exhibit E?

 

[MickeyCB]

So, when a poll question asks a respondent about Disney's "autonomy in Florida" and "special tax status", it should surprise no one that Disney does poorly.

Disney's special tax district is special.

My comment was simply in response to the poster implying that there aren't a lot of people in Disney's corner and that isn't the case. People may not be willing or able to visit the parks, but they buy their little pieces of Disney in the form of merch, etc.

Perception, bias, etc. are all at play here in this particular poll question.
As many have proven in this thread it's not "special" as in, oh wow Disney gets away with not paying their fair share, as the governor would have some people believe.
If you ask me do I think that it's ok that my neighbor gets a "special tax status" and I don't, of course I'm going to reply hell no.

And aside from all of this, I appreciate the time you have taken researching and posting the legal information you have on this thread.

 

[GoofGoof]

What was exhibit E?

I believe it was a concept art sketch of the 10 foot tall statue of DeSantis being commissioned to replace the statue of Walt and Mickey at MK.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

I believe it was a concept art sketch of the 10 foot tall statue of DeSantis being commissioned to replace the statue of Walt and Mickey at MK.

I think something happened to that statue yesterday…

 

[Kamikaze]

A coworker brought up DeSantis last night at work and kind of put this in a new perspective for me, he was excited Trump had competition and was hoping DeSantis could get the nomination, I said I was excited too but he’d lost me over the Disney feud, and my coworker said “what Disney feud?” He had absolutely no clue it even existed.

We are all paying close attention to this because we’re Disney fans but I suspect a lot of (if not most) people have never given it a single thought.

All the polls say he's already lost to Trump. And if he does announce, Trump is going to spend that week absolutely tearing into him. He has zero chance at the nomination unless Trump has a coronary. DeSantis beats everyone else for the R nomination, sure, but those others aren't his competition. Plus its like winning the nomination for best attempt to color within the lines.

I believe it was a concept art sketch of the 10 foot tall statue of DeSantis being commissioned to replace the statue of Walt and Mickey at MK.

The problem is this could actually be something they would propose.

 

[mkt]

unless Trump has a coronary

Given his well publicized diet of fast food and cola, this is a real possibility.

 

[Kamikaze]

Given his well publicized diet of fast food and cola, this is a real possibility.

His mom lived to 88 and father 94, so the genetics say otherwise.

 

[tissandtully]

Given his well publicized diet of fast food and cola, this is a real possibility.

The man is the luckiest person alive

 

[mkt]

His mom lived to 88 and father 94, so the genetics say otherwise.

Nature vs Nurture.

Let's see.

 

[GoofGoof]

The problem is this could actually be something they would propose.

Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have put that idea out there in the world even as a joke. I also joked about the district banning people dressed as mice or ducks. The way things have progressed that doesn’t seem as much like a silly joke anymore either

 

[mikejs78]

it is a sweetheart deal that applicants pursue because it benefits the applicants.

No, it's a way of being able to build big projects efficiently while not impacting the taxpayers. Calling it a "sweetheart deal" is incorrect. It's a symbiotic deal aimed at economic growth while putting that burden on the company, not the taxpayers, with the incentive that it allows for greater efficiency.

Disney could have built the same infrastructure and ran it privately

Some of it maybe, but not all There's no provision for a private fire department, for example. Reedy Creek's investments and services cover more than just roads. Reedy Creek also pays for police it needs, emergency medical services, etc, which would be funded by the taxpayers otherwise.

proffered it to the counties

Yes, but at taxpayer expense as opposed to Disney expense.

quid pro pro.

That's not an accurate term to describe how Reedy Creek has operated.

 

[scottieRoss]

Interesting. I wonder why the OCPA lists them as the owner?

it list them as they have a ground lease and are reponsible for taxes, but the property is owned by Palm Hospitality

 

[Chi84]

No, it's a way of being able to build big projects efficiently while not impacting the taxpayers. Calling it a "sweetheart deal" is incorrect. It's a symbiotic deal aimed at economic growth while putting that burden on the company, not the taxpayers, with the incentive that it allows for greater efficiency.

Best, most concise summary I’ve seen.

 

[GoofGoof]

No, it's a way of being able to build big projects efficiently while not impacting the taxpayers. Calling it a "sweetheart deal" is incorrect. It's a symbiotic deal aimed at economic growth while putting that burden on the company, not the taxpayers, with the incentive that it allows for greater efficiency.

RCID was a sweetheart deal…..for the limited number of local taxpayers who existed at the time it was put in place. It was also an essential benefit for Disney that directly resulted in the company selecting the Orlando site. Without RCID there’s a good chance they may not have built there or in FL at all. It’s easy to look at the situation today and dismiss the value Disney brought to the table but the state of FL would be dramatically different today without TWDC. Disney enjoyed their control and the local residents enjoyed not paying for the growth….a win/win. I don’t know if that’s the same thing as quid pro quo but both sides certainly benefited greatly initially and continued to benefit up until a few months ago.

Some of it maybe, but not all There's no provision for a private fire department, for example. Reedy Creek's investments and services cover more than just roads. Reedy Creek also pays for police it needs, emergency medical services, etc, which would be funded by the taxpayers otherwise.

There are still some private fire departments today but in a lot of cases those are supplemental and related to forest fire protection. EMS services could probably be provided privately but even that would have to be heavily coordinated with the local counties which would come at a cost to the counties.

Yes, but at taxpayer expense as opposed to Disney expense.

I feel like this is something that gets overlooked by some people. By creating RCID TWDC had control of a special tax district but they also paid almost exclusively for the cost of that government. So the argument keeps being made that other corporations don’t get to control a local government but other companies also aren‘t required to exclusively fund one either. If you look at the history of the area if RCID never existed or got dissolved today it would not be hard or overly expensive for TWDC to gain great influence over the local county governments. First, they are a massive catalyst of the local economy so why would the local government be anything other than overly friendly. It would be much cheaper to offer some campaign contributions to the right candidates to get them to approve what you want then to fund you own government. I don’t see Universal struggling to get development approved….they have their own development agreement with the government they don’t control.