What a difference a year makes! Approximately one year ago, the private tax and government district known as Reedy Creek, which had been wielded by The Walt Disney Company in Central Florida since 1967, was dissolved by the Florida State Legislature and replaced by the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD,) dedicated to fairly administering the territory that includes Walt Disney World but also other businesses and taxpayers who had been both financially and legally impacted by Disney’s illegal control, also making major financial, legal, governmental, and quality of life problems for the surrounding Orlando, Orange County, Oseola County and other adjacent areas there.
Reedy Creek Improvement District sign
Though the event that made the Legislature and Governor Ron DeSantis take a closer look at the powers being exercised by the former Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID) and how they favored (to put it mildly) the Walt Disney Company at the expense of others and good government was Disney’s vocal opposition to a bill keeping sexual topics out of public schools for small children, in the year since deep audits of RCID have revealed both state and federal irregularities that are now being pursued by authorities ranging from the State Attorney General’s office to the IRS, the SEC, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
On Thursday, February 21st, Governor DeSantis, other State officials, and CFTOD’s people assembled at the CFTOD headquarters in Walt Disney World to share with the media and the people the progress they’ve made.
READ: Disney Responds To Federal Judge Dismissing Lawsuit Against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
DeSantis pointed out that the entire justification for the extraordinary governmental powers that RCID was granted all those years ago, powers and rights NO other special tax district in Florida or, for that matter, anywhere else in the USA had ever gotten before or since, was based on Disney’s stated goal of actually building a real residential community where citizens would vote for officials, policies, and laws like they do anywhere else.
When Disney defaulted on that promise, the original intent of Walt’s vision for EPCOT as an “Experimental Prototype COMMUNITY of Tomorrow,” the deal became vulnerable to a private company exerting governmental control and thus prone to corruption.
“Ultimately, the acts that have been done in the last year are about who governs in our society,” the Governor explained. “Is it one company that gets to call the shots or is it we, the people of the State of Florida who get to call the shots? And so we made the decision…that it is we, the people who get to call the shots and so we signed this legislation last year.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaking with attendees at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s 2023 Annual Leadership Summit at the Venetian Convention & Expo Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The Governor pointed out how differently Disney was treated compared to others in the same theme park/resort business such as Universal and Sea World and said even he was unaware of how much special treatment Disney got. He cited exemption from Sunshine Laws, exemption from Regulator Review, major tax breaks, no Florida building and fire and safety codes enforced—even the Monorail, unlike EVERY other transportation system in the State of Florida, had NEVER been inspected (this caused an audible gasp from the audience the event.)
DeSantis also explored the propagandistic reactions to his signature of the bill a year ago, including claims that taxes would go up on citizens in the area which he described as “clearly a total red herring. In fact, this CFTOD Board has been able to reduce taxes for companies in the district even while improving services and expanding spending on improvements—a 7% reduction in tax rates and the elimination of forcing other district tenants to subsidize Disney. The other major complaint proven false was the threat that the municipal debt that RCID rang up—mostly revealed now to be bonds with legal and ethical problems for things like parking garages that only benefit Disney—close to $1 billion—would be passed on to other residents in central Florida, which didn’t happen and even if the district had simply been dissolved, there were enough assets to cover that debt.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) speaks during a convocation at Liberty University’s Vines Center in Lynchburg, Va., on Friday, April 14, 2023. Photo Credit: Tom Williams, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Among the many problems cited and exposed in the comprehensive audit were things like benefits paid to district employees, including those charged with oversight of Disney, by Disney—clearly a conflict that any City Council or County Board of Supervisors in America would find to be corrupt and illegal. As DeSantis pointed out, this kind of corruption is just human nature when there is opaqueness and no checks and balances—he noted that it wasn’t special to Disney but that ANY group or company operating under these special conditions would do the same which is why everywhere else laws are written and enforced to make sure it doesn’t happen.
Another problem DeSantis pointed out was that under RCID the only contractors who could do work for the District or even around the edges of it were those on a Disney approved list with no competitive bidding, freezing out all other businesses in the area from getting work there. Now, under CFTOD in even less than a year, a “buy local” attitude without those restrictions has resulted in contracts to businesses that were ineligible under the Disney restrictions amounting to $9.6 million in local contracts meaning jobs, taxes, and benefits to all local areas AND, because the bidding is now competitive, $1.6 million in savings for CFTOD taxpayers—including Disney itself. To quote DeSantis, “That’s a pretty good deal.”
Also a good deal for the taxpayers in the district? $18.4 million in tax savings in the last year, including a savings in CFTOD procurement of goods and services since Reedy Creek went away of $4.6 million. “A competitive process,” DeSantis noted, “makes a really, really big difference.” Among other things now banned? DEI restrictions and discriminatory practices. “The government here is now much more transparent, much more accountable, and much more efficient” the Governor concluded.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis giving the annual State of the State speech. Photo Credit: Office of the Governor of Florida, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Florida Secretary of Commerce Alex Kelly then pointed out that this positive renewal of fair market practices and healthy, transparent competition made the area attractive to job-seekers and entrepreneurs which also raises the standard of living for all residents, old and new.
He mentioned that since December 1 of 2023 alone, 75% of all vendors registering to do business with CFTOD are totally new and never were able to do business in the district before. Before this new regime, the State of Florida had nearly $200 million in special programs to help small businesses succeed, but there were NO applicants inside Reedy Creek because they were frozen out of participation by Disney’s preferential treatment for favored contractors.
Mickey walks down Main Street USA at Disneyland. (Credit: Mortimer Productions)
Next up was CFTOD Chairman Martin Garcia who really laid it on the line when he said “The former entity, The Reedy Creek Improvement District, which reigned for 56 years, was arguably the most egregious example of corporate cronyism in the history of modern America.”
Garcia continued, “Shockingly, before these reforms RCID, a government agency, was essentially operated by a corporate entity, Disney. District board members were hand-picked by Disney, a company that also paid some of their real estate taxes. District employees who were charged with regulating Disney were given free park passes and discounts on merchandise by Disney. That resulted in a $2.5 million fine to the district by the IRS. Tax dollars were spent by RCID exclusively for the benefit of Disney property. Disney, unlike any other business in central Florida, paid no impact fees. Urban planning strategies were implemented to the exclusive benefit of Disney that impacted negatively the rest of Orange and Oseola counties.”
“After the governor’s reform legislation was signed last year to essentially create a level playing field for the district,” Garcia explained, ”the new board took action to operate as an independent agency for all of the citizens of the state of Florida instead of acting as a corporate subsidiary for Disney.” He noted that the board got rid of some employees with blatant conflicts of interest with Disney, invested in important infrastructure, eliminated Disney perks paid to workers but also grossed up their compensation so they wouldn’t be penalized for Disney’s corruption, and finalized a contract with the fire department that had been stalled by Disney for five years.
Mickey Mouse in The Prince and the Pauper (1990), Walt Disney Animation
Next to speak was an attorney who specializes in local government and code enforcement named Drew Crawford who has recently been employed by CFTOD as a Code Enforcement Magistrate, handling building, fire, and real property maintenance administration. Shockingly, he explained that as far as he’s been able to discover, Reedy Creek had NEVER had a code enforcement program in the entire history of the district—not just the Monorail but every building, path, street, and publicly accessible facility both inside and outside the Disney parks, hotels, roads, golf courses, etc. etc. Not ONE.
Lastly, the Governor took questions and noted the failure of the Disney federal lawsuits, either dropped as unwinnable by Disney or dismissed by the judge, and introduced a local mom named Mandy who’d been at the forefront of the push for that original law about keeping young children safe from sexual teaching in school. As she summed up so eloquently, “I believe that parenting is the business of families, and that Disney’s ONLY business should be entertainment.”
If the first year of CFTOD’s progress in cleaning up the mess at Walt Disney World is any indication, that’s the direction things are moving at long, long last.
Great news.