Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signs bill dissolving Reedy Creek Improvement District and his office says Disney will pay more taxes

Apr 22, 2022 in "The Walt Disney Company"

Posted: Friday April 22, 2022 6:19pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

As expected, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed the bill calling for the elimination of Reedy Creek Improvement District.

Earlier this week, the Florida Senate voted 23-16 to pass a bill to dissolve Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District as Governor Ron DeSantis continues to work to punish Disney for opposing Florida's HB 1557, also known as the 'Don't Say Gay' bill.

Disney now faces the real possibility that the Reedy Creek Improvement District will be dissolved on June 1 2023.

DeSantis said after signing the bill, "You know, you did have the issue with our Parents Rights and Education bill...for whatever reason, Disney got on that bandwagon, they demagogued it, they lied about it," he said.

The bill is likely to receive several legal challenges before any implications are realized for Disney. At this stage, it appears that nobody involved in voting for the elimination of Reedy Creek has any plan to handle the district's massive debt and how current Reedy Creek responsibilities could be handled by Orange and Osceola Counties.

After signing the bill, DeSantis said, "People say, they have services and utilities. We're going to take care of all that, don't worry. We have everything thought out." He did not go on to offer any details or plan of how that would work.

He went on to say, "I don't even know that I knew the name of it prior to this becoming something that was live in the past few months."

Speaking to Fox News, when asked how eliminating Reedy Creek would be carried out in reality, Florida's Speaker of the House commented that "We have a year to figure that that out."

The press secretary for Ron DeSantis said on Twitter, "People will [ask about Disney's] services & utilities. We're gonna take care of that. Don't worry. We have everything thought out. Don't let anyone tell you somehow Disney's going to get a tax cut out of this. They're going to pay more taxes as a result of this."

Representatives of Orange County have suggested that its residents may see massive tax hikes to cover the Reedy Creek debt.

"The moment that it dissolves, that money's gone. And instead, what happens is all the debts and obligations of Reedy Creek get transferred over to Orange County government," said Scott Randolph, Orange County tax collector.

The creation of the Reedy Creek Improvement District in 1967 allowed Disney the luxury of establishing its own independent government that handles many aspects of the Walt Disney World property, including emergency services, infrastructure, and construction permitting.

These latest developments follow escalating tensions between DeSantis and Disney CEO Bob Chapek regarding Disney's opposition to Florida's HB 1557, also known as the 'Don't Say Gay' bill.

Disney has suspended all political donations in the state of Florida in response to the bill.

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lazyboy97o2 days ago

This is not normalcy nor should we lie and pretend it is. Development and building are local concerns and this structure remains abnormal and completely outside the construct of what are supposed to be legal taxing authorities. The threats remain clear, even if they’re just more loudly coming from others at the moment, and Disney is actively complying.

JoeCamel3 days ago

I think I would like to know Gilbert's campaign contribution history he seems to fit the bill of a Florida real estate salesman. Those and car dealers seem to gravitate to being politicians. Oh and lawyers too. I guess I yearn for the days of citizen service where the motives were clear but the money is way too high a bar for most.

Stripes3 days ago

These seem like decent appointments. Certainly better than the departing board members. With these appointments, it would seem to me that the new board will have members that are all qualified to be there. With the showdown over, things have returned to normalcy.

DCBaker3 days ago

Ron DeSantis has appointed 3 new members to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board of Supervisors: TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced the appointment of Alexis Yarbrough as Chair, John Gilbert, and Scott Workman to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. Alexis Yarbrough Yarbrough is the current Chair of the Broward College District Board of Trustees. She previously served as Chair and Commissioner on the Fourth District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission. Yarbrough earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Miami and her juris doctor from Nova Southeastern University. John Gilbert Gilbert is the Executive Managing Director at Stream Realty Partners. He was recognized as the 2007 and the 2012 Orlando Office Broker of the Year by the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks, Commercial Real Estate Development Association. Gilbert earned his bachelor's degree in real estate from Florida State University. Scott Workman Workman is the Owner of Workman Transportation and Owner and President of Workman Travel. He has been active in the transportation industry in Orlando for over 25 years. Workman attended the University of Iowa. These appointments are subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate. https://www.flgov.com/eog/news/press/2025/governor-ron-desantis-appoints-three-central-florida-tourism-oversight-district

lazyboy97o6 days ago

The FCC is investigating Comcast over their internal corporate practices that have nothing to actually do with broadcasting. Make no mistake, this is why Iger capitulated.

JKick9523 days ago

Do we have any updates on what this plan entails?

MR.DisJan 11, 2025

To give an example, I am retired from JP Morgan Chase, the provider of Disney Visa charge cards. I was eligible to purchase WDW and Disneyland tickets thru a portal for 20% off the rack rate. I do not know if that is still the case. While I was an annual pass holder purchasing thru DVC, I would purchase tickets for my kids when they visited WDW with their families. It was a significant savings.

flyakiteJan 11, 2025

Should anyone be interested and would like to attend:

michmousefanDec 29, 2024

cranbizDec 28, 2024

Not really a distortion of facts. Yes, RCID was a legally a separate entity from TWDC. In reality, it was controlled by WDW, which is why DeSantis had a hard on for getting revenge on TWDC for "don't say gay" and other woke policies by trying to revoke the district. He couldn't do that for many reasons so he got the law changed to appoint his own governing board. As we know, that really did fail miserably and there is now a board that is not antagonistic towards Disney. There is a charge for those benefits to the third party entities in some way, shape or form. WDW doesn't give anything away for free. RCID (and many third party operating participants) pay for those benefits (usually at a very reduced rate). So, in the case of RCID, Disney paid for those benefits through it's tax assessments because RCID has no income of it's own except for income received from it's taxpayers (of which TWDC is it's largest and majority taxpayer). So, what I said was true. WDW paid for the benefits granted by RCID to it's employees and RCID, by granting those benefits paid WDW back for them. This keeps everything legal. Yes, CFTOD wanted to stick it to Disney by refusing to pay WDW for those benefits, which in turn stuck it to the employees. RCID and CFTOD employees were never WDW Cast Members, they were employees of RCID or are/were employees of CFTOD.

LAKid53Dec 28, 2024

It takes little time to release a completed report. Unless that report didn't say exactly what you wanted it to say....

LAKid53Dec 28, 2024

Governor's office receives a FOIA (govt in the Sunshine) request... "What's sunshine?" 🙄

LAKid53Dec 28, 2024

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