Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID)– the arrangement that essentially lets them act as their own county and have a lot of control over their land in Orlando, Florida — could be in jeopardy.
Some Massive Changes Could be Coming to Disney World
What started as just an idea suggested by a Florida representative, eventually gained the support of Florida’s Governor and was added to a special legislative session. The Florida Senate recently passed a bill that would dissolve the RCID, and now we’ve got a BIG update on the situation.
According to the Florida Senate website, Senate Bill 4-C: Independent Special Districts, which is the bill that tackles the RCID, has also passed in Florida’s House of Representatives. The Bill passed with 70 yeas and 38 nays.
©Florida Senate Website
The Bill (full text here) states the following: “Notwithstanding s. 189.072(2), any independent special district established by a special act prior to the date of ratification of the Florida Constitution on November 5, 1968, and which was not reestablished, re-ratified, or otherwise reconstituted by a special act or general law after November 5, 1968, is dissolved effective June 1, 2023. An independent special district affected by this subsection may be reestablished on or after June 1, 2023, pursuant to the requirements and limitations of this chapter.”
Reedy Creek was established back in 1967, putting its establishment date before the date of the ratification of the Florida Constitution as discussed in the Bill.
Reedy Creek Fire Department ©Reedy Creek
As we mentioned above, earlier this year one Florida representative had mentioned the idea of repealing the act that formed the Reedy Creek Improvement District — a district that essentially allows Disney World to act as its own county with relation to the land on which it operates in Orlando, Florida. The Florida Governor then expanded a session session of the legislature to allow for this action to be considered, which has led to these actions.
Michael Grieco, a member of the Florida House of Representatives, tweeted that the Bill passed in the House with no debate allowed.
So the @Disney special district repeal bill passed with no debate allowed. Disappointing, as I had a decent speech prepared. References to Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Russia suppressing free speech would have been on the menu.
— Michael Grieco (@Mike_Grieco) April 21, 2022
The FL Legislature cannot unilaterally dissolve Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District. It’s an exercise in futility…
This whole thing is an effort to deflect attention away from the unconstitutional redistricting of Congressional districts and diluting of the black vote.
— Michael Grieco (@Mike_Grieco) April 19, 2022
Further steps would need to be taken for this Bill to become law. We’ll continue to keep an eye out for more updates.
Curious what impact this Bill could have on local areas in Florida? Click here to see our full piece as to why analysts say that stripping Disney World’s power could COST residents and counties.
Check back with us for more Disney news.
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This will thankfully backfire on DeSantis and Company. I expect Walt Disney World will remain here in Florida with the original agreement in force. This time Ol’ Ron has bitten off more than he’ll be able to swallow!
Wow, so they actually did it. Without a debate, no less (but obviously they had enough Republican votes to pass it). Thought Disney would start backsliding once the threats started but whatever they tried – and I’m sure they did try – didn’t work. DeSantis knew he had the upper hand since Disney can’t just uproot the entire WDW complex, not after 55 years developing it (and the surrounding area too). But I guess we will see Disney concentrate on its other parks and perhaps even look at opening a new location in a more progressive state.
Oh well. I guess Disney should learn to not stick it’s nose where it doesn’t belong.
Disney should stay out out politics when they are fighting a bill that gives parents the right to choose when their children are taught about sexuality in schools. Parents wanted this and fought for it & won.
DeSantis is is reminding Disney they are a guest in our state & they did not live up to the agreement signed by Disney to create a new futuristic urban society. Instead they reneged on the deal with built in tax advantages the ability to run their Epcot based city without a normal city government. Instead they built a theme park . It was a big Disney ripoff. Now Gov. DeSantis is bringing up they did not hold up their contractual plan. Maybe this goes to court, Disney is in for a fight that will cost them billions before it’s over and a mountain of negative publicity. I support DeSantis & the State of Florida. This could mean big tax dollars for the state.
I don’t think Disney could move Disney World, but let’s see what happens because a lot of Floridians support Gov DeSantis and what he’s doing
Jay, Disney is not going anywhere. They’ll renegotiate a new deal but this time will learn to stay out of politics.
A more progressive state means more taxes and restrictions in the event of another pandemic.
Unfortunate mis-step by upper levels of Disney. Shareholders are suffering to the tune of over 30 Billion because California residents chose to get involved in politics. Like it or not all Florida parties to the bill are elected by the residents of Florida. The majority of Florida residents evidently don’t think their children should be taught about sexuality of any kind until 4th grade.
Also, feels like a pretty one sided article without quotes from supporters of the move to removed Disney’s special status IMO.
Aside from the school stuff, it actually is fair. Why should Disney have this advantage and not Universal or Sea World. I get why they did it in the beginning, but the time has long passed for Disney to be treated as a special corporation. The counties will make tons of money off this once they start taxing Disney. There is a reason Disney wanted to keep this and its not because it didn’t save them money.
The Constitution assure us that we can stick our noses in anything, as long as we do so peacefully. Free speech and all that. Also remember, corporations are now considered people. And people are entitled to,voice their opinions.
That said, I’m not saying DeSantis will fail in his attempt to break up the Reedy Creek Charter (he will), but that Disney will retain the Charter as is because of simple economics and the complexity of how the Charter was written. I’m sure Disney’s attorneys are feverishly working on the appeal as we speak. I’m also sure, if they have to, they’ll take it all the way to the Supreme Court. And they will win. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.
Disney should have stayed out of it.
Following
Looks like DeSantis learned from his defeated leader and retaliates against free speech.
Chapek continues his march to destruction. Gov. DeSantis saved the company with sensible actions durning the pandemic. Had Disney been in his “enlightened “ State of CA, it would have gone belly up. Not only that, FL business friendly laws is the reason for relocating the entire creative team.. Chapek is doing to FL what he is doing to the Parks – destroying the magic and biting the hands that feed him.
Just wait until the property taxes increase greatly on all the residents of Orange & Osceola Counties, to make up for the approximately $2B in outstanding debt and the $136M in tax revenue loss. WDW will have no alternative but to raise their prices (again!) even more than they have in the past two years. Yeah, WDW is not going anywhere, but let’s face it — FL needs WDW more than WDW needs FL.
To those who feel this is ridiculous, it really has been a long time coming. I have read that they originally had this in place so Epcot could do the innovative things they wanted ro do. Now that they are focusing on things that go above and beyond, it really isnt necessary anymore. So, whether you hate DeSantis or not, I feel is a bit irrelevant to this issue. Maybe Disney shouldnt be allowed to run by their own rules. Maybe, just maybe, they should follow the same rules and laws that places like Universal have.
Whether you agree with the Governor or Disney one thing stands true, Disney stockholders are losing money hand over fist. Most live outside of Florida and have no influence in Florida elections or enough stock to influence Disney one way or the other. We are the real losers.
I feel sorry for the tax payers in the Orlando area counties were Disney properly is located. Those two counties will have to assume and absorb all the millions of outstanding debt Disney has for its infrastructure.
They also now be financially responsible for the cost of building and maintaining the roads, bridges, and other infrastructures that Disney paid for.
Disney is too big to fail, so other than taxes and building permits being delayed, their actually doing Disney’s favor by releasing them from infrastructure debt and cost. In the end, Disney will probably end up saving millions rather than losing millions.
“Never look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Will, saying “Oh well. I guess Disney should learn to not stick it’s nose where it doesn’t belong” is terribly wrong. Disney’s a multi-billion dollar corporation that influences so much of culture here and around the world. They’ve also always donated political contributions, and for both reasons have every right to take a stand against a particular issue that they know is discriminatory. This should be common sense.
DeSantis is 100% wrong on his bully retaliation. 1st amendment gives freedom of speech without retaliation.