Author Topic: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill  (Read 4019 times)

WLJ

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Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« on: April 21, 2022, 05:32:42 PM »
 [popcorn]
https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1517189688523689985

Quote
    NOW – Florida House votes in favor to strip Disney's self-government. pic.twitter.com/gq9S0po83K

    — Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) April 21, 2022
‘Listen to them screech’! It sounds like the Fla. House Dems took the vote on Disney really well (cue eye roll)
https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2022/04/21/listen-to-them-screech-it-sounds-like-the-fla-house-dems-took-the-vote-on-disney-really-well-cue-eye-roll/

The bill is now on the gov's desk.
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WLJ

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2022, 08:39:41 PM »
Bunch on the left calling for Disney to move out of Fl.
All this over the Parental Rights in Education bill.
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Hawkmoon

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2022, 09:40:45 PM »
The Disney "Reedy Creek Development District" thing was a gigantic boondoggle from the outset. Did y'all know that "Reedy Creek" had it's own building code? Unrelated to the Florida building code or the International Building Code that every state adopts as the model for their respective state codes. It never should have been allowed in the first place, but money talks.
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MechAg94

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2022, 09:54:52 PM »
Hopefully this will be a lesson to other corporations who seek to get active in politics that don't concern them.  The activists are not your friends. 
“It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.”  ― Calvin Coolidge

MechAg94

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2022, 10:51:54 PM »
The response of the Florida legislature make me wonder if Disney was directing most of their lobbying toward Democrats. 
“It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.”  ― Calvin Coolidge

HankB

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #5 on: April 21, 2022, 11:31:10 PM »
The response of the Florida legislature make me wonder if Disney was directing most of their lobbying toward Democrats.
Ya think? (Campaign contributions count as lobbying, right?)
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230RN

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #6 on: April 21, 2022, 11:43:08 PM »

...
« Last Edit: April 22, 2022, 03:54:19 PM by 230RN »

Perd Hapley

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #7 on: April 22, 2022, 02:25:47 AM »
Judging by some propaganda piece I saw, they're spinning this as Dictator DeSantis punishing a business that defied his scorched earth culture war policies.
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dogmush

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #8 on: April 22, 2022, 05:33:29 AM »
I am of mixed feelings on this.  On one hand, there never should have been a carve out for Disney, and they shouldn't have pretty much all the special treatment they get.

On the other hand I don't like to see the power of government used to vindictivly punish companies (and/or people) that have spoken out In opposition to the party in charge.

DittoHead

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #9 on: April 22, 2022, 10:10:31 AM »
I would probably be screeching too if I lived in one of those counties!
Effectively, Disney’s loss of control also hands it a $163 million per year tax break. If the entire state of Florida was responsible for covering the hole, each taxpayer would have to cough up roughly $7.50.

However, this burden will not be shared equally. Despite zero debate or public comment, and the near-total opposition of Central Florida’s delegation to this maneuver, Orange and Osceola County taxpayers will shoulder the hit alone, leaving both counties staring at financial ruin.

Salvaging the budgets won’t be pretty. State law prevents the counties from raising sales taxes or impact fees to cover the costs. They also must tax all areas of the county equally, meaning whatever they enact must apply to everyone.

That leaves one avenue: property taxes, of which Orange County collects approximately $600 million per year right now.

“I don’t see how Orange County doesn’t raise property taxes by 20% to 25%,” Randolph said. “That’s what [the county] would probably have to do to cover this financial situation.”


I don't like to see the power of government used to vindictivly punish companies (and/or people) that have spoken out In opposition to the party in charge.
Unfortunately this sentiment is much less common these days, even on the right.  =(
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RoadKingLarry

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #10 on: April 22, 2022, 10:13:59 AM »
I have less of a problem with it since Disney et al were pushing back against an anti-pedo/grooming issue.
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MechAg94

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #11 on: April 22, 2022, 10:15:01 AM »
I am of mixed feelings on this.  On one hand, there never should have been a carve out for Disney, and they shouldn't have pretty much all the special treatment they get.

On the other hand I don't like to see the power of government used to vindictivly punish companies (and/or people) that have spoken out In opposition to the party in charge.
Yes, either give the same deal to everyone or take it away from everyone.  Level playing field for the market.
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MechAg94

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #12 on: April 22, 2022, 10:21:00 AM »
I would probably be screeching too if I lived in one of those counties!
Unfortunately this sentiment is much less common these days, even on the right.  =(
I doubt Disney will turn over all its emergency services to the county.  Plenty of big chemical plants in Texas have their own certified emergency services groups.  Disney will likely keep theirs and pay for it.  Otherwise, the response time would go way down. 

Beyond that, there always excuses to keep regulations and BigGov stuff in place. 
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TechMan

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #13 on: April 22, 2022, 12:11:53 PM »
The Disney "Reedy Creek Development District" thing was a gigantic boondoggle from the outset. Did y'all know that "Reedy Creek" had it's own building code? Unrelated to the Florida building code or the International Building Code that every state adopts as the model for their respective state codes. It never should have been allowed in the first place, but money talks.

Yep, I've seen it as my company as done MEP design for tenants at Disney Springs.
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Perd Hapley

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #14 on: April 22, 2022, 01:32:45 PM »
I have less of a problem with it since Disney et al were pushing back against an anti-pedo/grooming issue.

That, and is it really a punishment? They used to have a sweetheart deal with special privileges. Now they don't.
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MechAg94

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #15 on: April 22, 2022, 02:48:21 PM »
Ya think? (Campaign contributions count as lobbying, right?)
They do IMO.  I just imagine if Disney was supporting politicians from both sides, the establishment R's over there wouldn't be so quick to do this. 
“It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.”  ― Calvin Coolidge

Brad Johnson

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #16 on: April 22, 2022, 03:28:36 PM »
They used to have a sweetheart deal with special privileges. Now they don't.

That's the crux of the whole thing. Now they're playing at the same table, and with the same deck, as everyone else. They wanted fairness and equity. They got it.

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MillCreek

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #17 on: April 22, 2022, 03:59:13 PM »
Isn't the Scientology town in Florida also a special district?  I wonder if this bill only applies to Disney.
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AZRedhawk44

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #18 on: April 22, 2022, 06:07:28 PM »
I'm really confused by this.

We have a Republican legislature and governor, targeting a special interest megacorp, with legislation that relieves it of bond/debt obligation as well as municipal civil services obligations.  Those debts and operational costs are being distributed to the two counties the megacorp's land straddles.

And we have the megacorp complaining about it, and this move being somehow a battlefield in the ongoing Culture War.

I look at this and while I disagree with Disney's stance in the Culture War, I applaud them for operating a city-sized theme park for half a century without bothering with government oversight.  They appeased their insurers and had such a low rate of injury or civil violation that no argument could be made to strip them of self-government for 50+ years, up until they disagreed about gays and trannies or something like that.

These Republicans transferred the corporation's bond debt to the county and its taxpayers?  Republicans?  And the municipal operational costs and code enforcement costs of an installation like Disneyworld are far greater than the taxes received by the counties in question.

There's a lot of bad thinking going on all around this.
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T.O.M.

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #19 on: April 22, 2022, 09:43:49 PM »
I'm really confused by this.

We have a Republican legislature and governor, targeting a special interest megacorp, with legislation that relieves it of bond/debt obligation as well as municipal civil services obligations.  Those debts and operational costs are being distributed to the two counties the megacorp's land straddles.

And we have the megacorp complaining about it, and this move being somehow a battlefield in the ongoing Culture War.

I look at this and while I disagree with Disney's stance in the Culture War, I applaud them for operating a city-sized theme park for half a century without bothering with government oversight.  They appeased their insurers and had such a low rate of injury or civil violation that no argument could be made to strip them of self-government for 50+ years, up until they disagreed about gays and trannies or something like that.

These Republicans transferred the corporation's bond debt to the county and its taxpayers?  Republicans?  And the municipal operational costs and code enforcement costs of an installation like Disneyworld are far greater than the taxes received by the counties in question.

There's a lot of bad thinking going on all around this.

I agree.  The Rs in Florida passed some legislation that lets them campaign saying "I fought Disney and took away their special privileges."  But it looks like everyone ignored (willingly or negligently) the financial impact on the Orlando area.  Heck, I was just reading how Disney maintained all of the roads from the interstate to all of their properties...which are now public owned and the responsibility of the counties to maintain.  So Disney goes from paying 100% of those costs to sharing those expenses with all of the other county tax payers.  On the emergency response, I read that "Dinsey Fire" often responded to local businesses and communities under mutual aid agreements.  Those were dissolved by the bill, and Disney Fire cannot operate off of Dinsey owned property anymore.

Really feel like this is a "cut off nose to spite face" situation.
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Andiron

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #20 on: April 22, 2022, 10:34:46 PM »
This was a case of Disney waking up one day and saying " You know what?  *expletive deleted*ck that state government,  we do what we want."  The rest is history. Good bad or otherwise.

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sumpnz

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #21 on: April 22, 2022, 11:02:38 PM »
Isn't the Scientology town in Florida also a special district?  I wonder if this bill only applies to Disney.

I heard on a podcast, and I’m too lazy to find a source for a link, that the wording was such that all such special areas formed before the ratification of the state constitution (1968-ish) and not since renewed were dissolved as of June 2023.  Disneys special area was created about a year before.  I’m sure that was to avoid any kind of bill of attainder type of challenge.

No idea how many other special areas are affected.

Perd Hapley

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #22 on: April 23, 2022, 02:54:07 AM »
Unfortunately, a lot of us are stuck in the 90s on this, thinking that the homosexual/transgender controversies are all much ado over what 2 consenting adults do in the bedroom. Or at the pride parade. Well, that's not true anymore, if it ever was. This whole thing is the result of some teachers and some schools pushing kids into transgenderism, and teaching about sexuality at inappropriate ages. And they don't want parents to know about it. If that's not something government should address, then nothing is.

So enough talk about how this is just some social issue, stuffy old conservatives don't like the gayz, etc.
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K Frame

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #23 on: April 23, 2022, 08:09:48 AM »
Is it just me, or is it hysterical watching the liberals weeping for and defending a mega corporation's special tax status...

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Perd Hapley

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Re: Meltdown in the Florida House over Disney bill
« Reply #24 on: April 23, 2022, 08:20:12 AM »
Is it just me, or is it hysterical watching the liberals weeping for and defending a mega corporation's special tax status...

Not just you. You beat me to it.
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