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Vote to dissolve Disney’s special district, eliminating privileges

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Re: Vote to dissolve Disney’s special district, eliminating privileges

#31

Post by frumper »

beerandt wrote: post #29
8note wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like they should spend a lot of money via debts on park improvements, since that'll be moved onto the counties as soon as the district is gone

What's not mentioned in the article is that all new improvements would be the county's responsibility, but that means the county also has to decide to approve those projects. They could just not spend any money on maintaining or improving Disney roads/ infrastructure until Disney gives them a reason to want to. Which might mean making Disney "voluntarily" pay off the district's past debt as well as agreeing to pay fo…

Disney wouldn’t have much trouble flooding county elections with money. One election cycle of delays then business as usual

Re: Vote to dissolve Disney’s special district, eliminating privileges

#32

Post by beerandt »

colburnmh wrote: post #8
DamnYuppie wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure I follow this reasoning. I have two questions first what bonds would tax payers be on the hook for? Second exactly where would Disney pull up and go to if they left Orlando? I ask as it was challenging for them to buy up all that land way back in the 60's, they had to be very circumspect about doing it to avoid making the land prices sky rocket. As of today where can they buy that much land now and then…

Apparently the RCID has $2 billion in bonds, which would result in ~$2,200 levy on the residents of Osceola and Orange counties. Further, the RCID district operates at a loss, but that is offset by Disney's profit from the park. Now those losses will become the taxpayer's problem, and Disney will get to pocket the profit. It's also not clear whether the counties are actually able to operate Disney's power, water, EMS…

The district has tax revenue that (to oversimplify) will now be replaced with the regular county taxes, which makes it more or less revenue neutral.

You say "handled by the county" as if it's a burden, but that's literally the purpose of government.

The real burden is now on Disney, who has to demonstrate to the governing body that any given desired improvement is worthwhile to be approved.

Part of that is usually the "developer" contributing to the project cost.

Everyone is focusing on the money, but this is really about the ability to bypass government control.

Which is why Disney was so insistent on bearing these costs in the first place.

Re: Vote to dissolve Disney’s special district, eliminating privileges

#33

Post by beerandt »

frumper wrote: post #31
beerandt wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's not mentioned in the article is that all new improvements would be the county's responsibility, but that means the county also has to decide to approve those projects. They could just not spend any money on maintaining or improving Disney roads/ infrastructure until Disney gives them a reason to want to. Which might mean making Disney "voluntarily" pay off the district's past debt as well as agreeing to pay fo…

Disney wouldn’t have much trouble flooding county elections with money. One election cycle of delays then business as usual

Maybe- but that's a mess they'd rather avoid. And one that could backfire on them.

Which is why before cutting state political donations entirely, they contributed to pretty much all candidates.

Re: Vote to dissolve Disney’s special district, eliminating privileges

#34

Post by beerandt »

colburnmh wrote: post #9
jleyank wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure Disney is as good with financial modeling as any Wall Street firm. If they have responsibilities for things like water/sewer because they were an extra-governmental region, why would they not try to drop them like a stone if this was removed? Private companies aren't responsible for water, sewer, fire, police, ... all of the things needed to keep the peace. It's not like private companies are nice, friendly…

Because, unlike most businesses, Disney's park straddles two different counties (Orange and Osceola). Therefore, they have to deal with two different counties to get anything done in a consistent fashion. Further, by having control of their own infrastructure, they can control the standard of quality. Pass that to two different counties, and some of the differences between how the counties are managed will start to a…

>two different counties

This was a hedge done on purpose, so that (among other reasons) they wouldn't be 100% at the mercy of a single governing entity.

There's a loss of consistency between the two, but that's a feature, not a bug.

If one county doesn't cooperate with what's needed for, eg, a new park, Disney can threaten to put it in the other county instead.

Re: Vote to dissolve Disney’s special district, eliminating privileges

#35

Post by frumper »

beerandt wrote: post #33
frumper wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disney wouldn’t have much trouble flooding county elections with money. One election cycle of delays then business as usual

Maybe- but that's a mess they'd rather avoid. And one that could backfire on them. Which is why before cutting state political donations entirely, they contributed to pretty much all candidates.

I agree, I think you’re entirely right. Why settle for only funding one side when you can throw money everywhere

Re: Vote to dissolve Disney’s special district, eliminating privileges

#36

Post by subsection1h »

tomohawk wrote: post #27

This is what happens when companies decide to get involved in social engineering instead of providing value to their customers. Picking partisan political battles is sure to piss off at least 30% of the people out there. Can Disney afford that? Disney had a privileged position for a long time, and in abusing that privilege has lost it.

No post body was provided.

Re: Vote to dissolve Disney’s special district, eliminating privileges

#37

Post by jjeaff »

mardifoufs wrote: post #14
themadturk wrote: post #5

> Floridians said, ‘You are a guest. Maybe you don’t deserve the special privileges anymore.’” I think a company that owns land and has contributed billions to the local economy over the past 50+ years is something more than a "guest." Unless, of course, all those retirees and children and grandchildren of Cuban refugees are also merely "guests."

Because they've owned land for a while they should have privileges no one else has? Imo the concept of carving out exceptions to the law for a single megacorp is troubling

It doesn't really look so much like a privilege as it does just a special arrangement for a special case. Disney basically just controls its own county. The local government (that they control) collects the property taxes from Disney and then uses those taxes to build and maintain the roads, sewer, utilities and services like police and fire. The surrounding counties will now be able to get that property tax money, but at the same time they are now responsible for maintaining everything. The question is whether the surrounding counties can do that for the same cost that the Disney local government did.

Re: Vote to dissolve Disney’s special district, eliminating privileges

#38

Post by euroderf »

infamouscow wrote: post #20
euroderf wrote: post #12

Disney should close for the summer. Let Florida know how their economy actually works. Disney would eat the cost of a summer closure as a cost of doing business. And not incidentally, Dems have been in bed with Disney for ages, dragging out copyright ad infinitum, so why do they not line up behind Disney to make a big issue out of this nonsensical demagogic bullying ? Isn't Disney sort of the definition of "family-fr…

Disney has to justify that to the shareholders. Good luck.

Over the long term, megalomaniac creeps like DeSantis are gonna screw Disney over. Better to punch back ASAP, IMHO. Hit'em where it hurts - in the pocketbook of the state economy.

Re: Vote to dissolve Disney’s special district, eliminating privileges

#39

Post by themadturk »

mardifoufs wrote: post #14
themadturk wrote: post #5

> Floridians said, ‘You are a guest. Maybe you don’t deserve the special privileges anymore.’” I think a company that owns land and has contributed billions to the local economy over the past 50+ years is something more than a "guest." Unless, of course, all those retirees and children and grandchildren of Cuban refugees are also merely "guests."

Because they've owned land for a while they should have privileges no one else has? Imo the concept of carving out exceptions to the law for a single megacorp is troubling

I was actually responding to the statement that "they're guests." Do Florida officials consider every out-of-stater who comes in and buys land a "guest"? I'm not disagreeing with the troubling nature of carving out exceptions...but the state's attitude is also troubling (to say the least).

Re: Vote to dissolve Disney’s special district, eliminating privileges

#40

Post by pyuser583 »

evolve2k wrote: post #11

> Reedy Creek, as a special district, has no representatives in the state legislature. What’s the democratic impact here for residents? Could this mean in future local residents gain back a vote and representation that until now they have been beholden to Disneys take on local governance decisions?

But there are no people, only Disney.

It’s like how the City of London allows corporations to vote.

It doesn’t have any residents, so the companies doing business there vote on candidates.

Except because America doesn’t allow corporations to vote, there will be two counties with no electors.

I have no idea how that will work.

I’m not saying the Reedy Creek arrangement is ideal. The alternative is probably direct government by the State.

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