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Comment by themadturk | Hacker News Reader

I wonder about the impact to the county. As a self-governing entity, I believe Disney paid for all utilities, roads, etc. in the Reedy Creek Development District (I think that is/was the name). I have heard that now county taxpayers will need to put up and additional $2,000 or more per resident to provide those services at the same level Disney provided them.

No doubt this was a political gift to Disney when they promised to bring development to the Orlando area half a century ago, and Disney certainly fulfilled that part of the deal.

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>No doubt this was a political gift to Disney when they promised to bring development to the Orlando area half a century ago, and Disney certainly fulfilled that part of the deal.

And with 50+ years of special status it sounds like Florida fulfilled their part as well.

The Disney of today does not resemble the Disney of then, they're one of the largest media companies in the world. What would be the value in letting them continue with their special treatment?

I never understand these hysterics about the tax payers have to pick up the additional amount, this is based on the idea that with the dissolving of Reedy Creek Disney will continue to pay the exact same amount of property taxes they do today...

I find that it be laughable, and purposefully misleading as well designed political misinformation by people that are politically opposed to the dominant political winds in the state.

In reality I expect this to be a windfall for the tax base in a few of the counties (except orange) that have been starved for cash because of Reedy Creek

From a CNBC story [1]:

“If the special district is dissolved, Orange and Osceola counties would have to provide the local services currently provided by Reedy Creek. And, the $105 million in revenue would disappear, meaning county and local taxpayers would be on the hook for part or all of the added costs.

…

“Reedy Creek has bond liabilities of between $1 billion and $1.7 billion, according to the district’s financial filings. Under Florida statute, if Reedy Creek is dissolved, those liabilities are transferred to the local governments — either Bay Lake or Lake Buena Vista, or more likely, Orange and Osceola counties.”

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/21/disney-special-district-flor...

I am aware of the "news" reporting fake information, there is no indication to this story why "105 million" would "disappear", or why Orange and Osceola counties would have to provide services to Disney with out taxing them for the services like every other tax payer.

Reedy Creek is a special tax district designed to REDUCE Disney's cost by enabling them to provide some traditional government services themselves and not having to pay the associated taxes to the counties.

With the dissolving of Reedy Creek Disney yes Orange and Osceola counties will have to provide service but they are also going to collect additional taxes for those services.

Are they actually going to collect those taxes though?

I think it's most likely that the services will just disappear

The debt won’t disappear. The taxpayers will have to pick that up.

I've had a difficult time trying to find any context on that part of the ledger for this decision. Most of the stories I've seen are slanted in a partisan direction.

From what I can surmise from this link [1], it sounds like the plan is to create new taxes for it. Here's a snippet from that article:

> Fine acknowledges that the local entities where Reedy Creek lies will pick up the Reedy Creek's debt once the district is dissolved, but says those local governments can create Municipal Service Taxing Units (MSTU) that would also "pick up the revenue that would be going to pay for the debt." He insists that "There's no impact to taxpayers."

[1] https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/disney-stripped-special...

"The total income of the three amusement parks in Disney World is around $17 billion a year." A 1% local sales on this would be $170 million a year. Then you add property taxes.

Ah, but the GOP-run state doesn’t like new taxes. The state doesn’t collect income tax and largely relies on taxing the tourists. Between state tax and county hotel tax, locals are already getting a ~20% cut.

The state is already reeling from losing ~6% of its annual revenue from 2020 and the state keeps growing.

At what point does the third-largest state need to implement state income tax to keep quality of life from becoming third-world? It’s a political third rail.

They would then also be able to tax them more. Let's say very reasonable european style VAT tax of 25% on entertainment services. Instantly billions of free profit to them.

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