Posted on 04/22/2022 6:21:37 AM PDT by ObozoMustGo2012
Can someone explain this talking point liberals are pushing that the FL/Disney kerfluffle might raise taxes on Florida residents, as police, fire, and other "infrastructure" services would need to be provided by local/city forces?
Is this a legitimate consequence of the legislation, or of this just typical liberal fearmongering?
Actually Disney owns huge amounts of undeveloped land that wasn’t being taxed.
It will not be taxed.
This is a red herring spewed by a liberal Orange County official.
[The big issue is that Disney has run up about $1 billion in debt for Reddy Creek.]
So Disney is in the red for $1B?? Sounds like they don’t have an efficient business model.
Maybe they can sell off some of their assets like Marvel, Star Wars, and ESPN to recoup...
“So Disney is in the red for $1B?? Sounds like they don’t have an efficient business model.”
Every corporation has debt. Disney has about $53 billion in total and they decided to store about $2 billion of that in their Reddy Creek conservation district.
The problem for Florida is that if dissolved that municipal debt gets transferred to the state, not to Disney.
“If Reddy Creek is dissolved that debt gets transferred to the people of Florida. That makes no sense.”
Nothing complicated here. Disney controlled a municipality, and used that municipality to issue bonds at a cheaper rate than it could as a corporation.
Under Florida, law and the contracts for those bonds, if a municipality gets dissolved its debts are transferred to the state.
“but what I think is really going on is that Disney will now have to pay property taxes but in return some of the costs that Reedy Creek was incurring will now be absorbed by the county(s)”
DW pays county property taxes but also collects additional monies for infrastructure but the district runs in the red and has about $1 billion outstanding debt in bonds.
Exactly.
Disney isn’t hurting (...yet) but any
costs will be a drop in the bucket for
them. People will still be overcharged to go to WokeDisneyWorld in Orlando and will eagerly stand in long lines for hours only
to be told sorry the ride broke down.
The Left wants big corporations and rich
people to pay higher taxes. Then this should be good news! Soak those Hollywood celebs and take away their tax loopholes
like this. The Mouse should pay their fair
share.
Oh, noes, my state sales tax might go up half a penny! I’ll be paying 8% (state-local) instead of 7.5%. Oh, the humanity. Small price to pay for containing the pervs.
“Disney got the authority in exchange for no taxes….”
Disney paid $780 million in state and local taxes last year.
Its amazing , when covid was in full swing and Florida was wide open for business...Floridians were the scum of the earth....now look at the media so concerned for them supposedly paying more in taxes.
There was some early fear that if the special district dissolved, debt would defer to the two counties, Orange and Osceola since WDW straddles the two. This is a wrong assumption.
What still needs to be worked out, per an interview with the FL House Speaker, how to unwind it all, transfer code enforcement back to the counties, work out police/fire issues, and place stuff back on the property tax rolls. County taxpayers will now have/may have influence over expansion, zoning, ordinances, etc.
That is true. Disney’s patrons do however, pay state and local bed taxes, state sales tax, and other fees like parking. But Disney itself does not pay property taxes or local taxes the Orange or Osceola counties to support their Disney infrastructure. If this forces Disney to pay those taxes I suspect that the counties will be on the winning side of the deal even if they are forced to provide the fire, water, garbage, etc. services.
It will be interesting over the near future to see how this affects Disney’s revenues. My guess is that since such a large percentage of their patrons seem to be from other countries, their revenue will not be too badly affected. (Full disclosure - Mrs. Afterguard and I have had annual Disney passes for years. We live less than three hours away. It’s been our experience that many many of the folks we meet there are either European, particularly from the UK, or South American.) BTW we did not renew our pass this year. I would be disappointed to see Disney die, I guess, but if they do, it’s well deserved now.
“Under Florida, law and the contracts for those bonds, if a municipality gets dissolved its debts are transferred to the state.”
Incorrect.
Assets and debt assigned to counties.
“But Disney itself does not pay property taxes or local taxes the Orange or Osceola counties to support their Disney infrastructure. “
Disney does pay county property tax but Reedy Creek collects other ‘taxes’ to maintain infrastructure.
Reedy Creek runs a deficit which Disney subsidizes.
“Disney got the authority in exchange for no taxes….”
Disney paid $780 million in state and local taxes last year.
As with any issue, I think we all need to learn the facts. Did Disney get any tax breaks or any financial benefits from having that special district carved out for them? Did that arrangement positively impact their bottom line?
I don’t know the answer to that. I suspect Disney did benefit because this district was created for Disney to operate Disney World. If it didn’t benefit Disney, they would never have lobbied to create such a district.
Has anyone studied what the financial impacts are, both to Disney and taxpayers, from terminating Disney’s district?
It doesn’t matter.
Is it your position that raping children is OK as long as taxes don’t rise?
You must be a conservative.
“There was some early fear that if the special district dissolved, debt would defer to the two counties, Orange and Osceola since WDW straddles the two. This is a wrong assumption.”
Please clarify. Every source I see still says debt goes tomcounties.
RELEASE THE FEAR! We’re loosing.....
Currently Disney “taxes” itself for Reddy Creek improvements... reality is, and I have no doubt about this, the state will introduce taxes on Disney to replace these taxes, and anyone telling you they can’t do it, hasn’t been paying attention.
Most jurisdictions that house amusement parks and the like have very specific taxes they have enacted that pretty much target JUST those items.
I have no doubt that by the time this actually happens, the 158Million a year will be being paid in some form of tax by Disney, if not more. This argument is a non starter, IMHO.
“Currently Disney “taxes” itself for Reddy Creek improvements...”
Or issues bonds.
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