DeSantis vs. Disney

Right!!!!!

And the Tallahassee police weren’t run by FSU and Bobby Bowden for over 30 years.

 

You told me to look it up. I did. It said you were wrong. If you want to dispute that, provide some evidence.

 

Disney broke the "Golden Rule of business." Republicans broke the "Golden Rule of the Constitution." They used the government to retaliate against an organization for its expression of political speech. Yet, you seem far less concerned by that than Disney expressing opinions you don't like.

What "conditions" are those?

 

LOL Total meltdown happening here

 

Not celebrating, just stating facts. Disney was and is foolish for letting this issue become this big. They are a business who benefits tremendously from an exception that the state has made for them. Then they drink their own bath water long enough to think that they can do whatever they want and hold that exception. They’re foolish and it’s about to cost them some big $$.

 

From the Orange County Tax Collector:
Property Tax

They split up the real estate among a ton of differnt corporations, so it isn't all under one heading, but they are paying property taxes. Unless you think the tax collector is in on it too?

You can go to the property tax search tool on their website and enter in the names of the various corporations run by Disney to get the full amount of taxes they are paying:
Property Tax Search & Tax Roll Download - Orange County Tax Collector

 

Of course Disney isn’t going to scrap the existing parks, but in terms of future growth, nonsense such as this could have them shopping around. It could delay new attractions (building codes and infrastructure confusion), have them reconsider projects. Relocate offices. Etc.

As Disney is an important economic component of the state, if it causes “damage” it would be mutual. But Disney can re-allocate it’s resources, if it opens an attraction in CA, EU, Asia but not FL, those other parks might see more tourist traffic but the FL park less. That would be pretty straightforward as a negative to FL missing out on tourist dollars. Disney wouldn’t “lose” per se, as they would just be foregoing that investment in FL and deploying resources somewhere else.

I have no dog in this fight. I just find all this amusing. Conservatives setting fire to fiscal conservatism to favor crazed social warrior battles.

 

I have been working economic development deals with state, county, and city governments for years. It’s pretty safe to assume that neither of you could even spell EDI.

When you take government money or tax breaks, you cannot operate in any way that will embarrass or anger any of the politicians that have granted you that exception or future politicians. Disney thought they were bigger than this. I’m quite positive that whatever intelligent business people are still in their executive staff are wishing they could make this go away. Their will be heads rolling over this. Just wait.

 

So it’s just Disney that made this issue “big”, not Desantis threatening them?

 

Yes, and as I said. That is virtually no tax.

 

Oh this should be good. What insight do you think you've made that has any meaning?

 

Governments do what they do. They change every few years and do things differently. Companies taking their incentives have to play the middle and it is a very tight bandwidth.

You stay out of the news. You donate to both parties. You donate to a broad group of local causes. You keep every one in town thinking that you are a good corporate citizen. No waves. No political positions. No favoritism to certain causes.

 

And yet you think Disney doesn't pay property taxes?

 

There are hundreds of Parcel IDs for Walt Disney. That direct link is just for one of them. You need to go through all of them to get the total amount in Orange County. And then do the same in Osceola county.

I was just providing evidence that the total amount is greater than zero. Not attempting to give you a value for the total. The total has been posted several times already. You wanted verification for it, I just provided the source where you can see for yourself how much they really pay in property taxes since you didn't believe the secondary sources.

 

I didn’t say zero. I said virtually none. They get a lot of breaks on their valuations. Those are breaks that companies who do not get the exceptions do not get.

 

Blah, blah, blah. You're wrong and you know it.

 

Then would you mind sharing the authoritative source evidencing that Disney pays no such taxes?

 

How many millions do you think they should be paying? Which properties do you believe are being undertaxed?

 

No. Disney didn’t break the Golden Rule of Business. Disney was acting as they believed was appropriate for their customer base. Companies act in such moral manners all the time. Look no further than the global pullout from Russia.

 

You're wrong. Disney paid about $620M in state and local taxes in 2017. They get the same exact tax breaks that all corporations get in the state (not from the Reedy act) and Desantis already said he is NOT going after their tax exemptions. So what are you talking about? They still keep their corporate tax breaks. You're not even close on this one, bud.

BTW, since you are in central FL, you must know of Rick Singh, the former Orange County property appraisor. If Disney doesn't pay taxes/property taxes, how did Disney sue Singh and win for him purposely exaggerating their property tax bill worth $296M between 2015 and 2020? That Disney paid? Disney was awarded $8M for him improperly overestimating the price of 14 of their theme parks and resorts. Universal and SeaWorld also sued him for the same.

In fact, in 2017, Disney, Universal, and SeaWorld accounted for paying 7% of Orange County's property taxes ($135M). Obviously all three get tax breaks and still will if Reedy is dissolved. Osceola and Orange will now have to foot the bill for everything in Reedy.

Disney also has the 6% tourism tax that no other corporation has in state (other than other theme parks). There is a theme park loophole that Disney uses to sell vacation packages back to itself to save some in taxes, if that is what you are clamoring about, because you have given zero specifics, just hearsay, but Universal, Sea World, Bush Gardens, etc also use it, so it is not Disney specific.