Report on Past Practices of the RCID released

[Brian Noble]

I know: you're just asking questions, right?

 

[etherealcaitiff]

I think it's funny that the document starts off complaining about cronyism, when it was written by a hand picked board of the Governor's supporters lol.

 

[hildarumpole]

She is on the board that commissioned the audit that was clearly devised to prop up the CFTOD's stance against the previous administrators.

The audit was required per the law that abolished RCID and was conducted by independent third party auditors, which included a George Mason Univ. Law professor who specializes in property and land use law and a forensic accountant who has provided services for many federal agencies. It appears most have simply read the introduction, but there's plenty of serious evidence provided through RCID documents and communications in the meat of the report which raises concerns about many financial and legal issues. The board meeting presenting the audit was streamed on Youtube yesterday and is available to watch, in case anyone interested has 4 hours to spare.

 

[Brian Noble]

The whole thing is entirely disingenuous. There is no reason to waste four minutes of my time on it, let alone four hours.

Disney bought a privately-owned government, with legislation that was drafted by Disney lawyers and basically adopted whole-hog by the FL legislature. Of course it was self-dealing; that was the entire point! And it didn't matter very much that it was self-dealing, because all of the "taxpayers" were either Disney subsidiaries or Disney employees.

Every semi-serious FL state government official knew the deal for years, and no one gave two whits about it until it got wrapped up in the culture wars and became a political football. The sudden pearl-clutching is the very definition of performative.

If anyone is really interested in the history--which is admittedly fascinating--I highly recommend Fogelsong's Married to the Mouse. I thought it was an excellent read.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/980930.Married_to_the_Mouse

 

[New Mouse]

The audit was required per the law that abolished RCID and was conducted by independent third party auditors, which included a George Mason Univ. Law professor who specializes in property and land use law and a forensic accountant who has provided services for many federal agencies. It appears most have simply read the introduction, but there's plenty of serious evidence provided through RCID documents and communications in the meat of the report which raises concerns about many financial and legal issues. The board meeting presenting the audit was streamed on Youtube yesterday and is available to watch, in case anyone interested has 4 hours to spare.

A

 

[New Mouse]

The audit was required per the law that abolished RCID

Everything beyond this was rendered meaningless by this statement.

 

[soniam]

The audit was required per the law that abolished RCID and was conducted by independent third party auditors, which included a George Mason Univ. Law professor who specializes in property and land use law and a forensic accountant who has provided services for many federal agencies. It appears most have simply read the introduction, but there's plenty of serious evidence provided through RCID documents and communications in the meat of the report which raises concerns about many financial and legal issues. The board meeting presenting the audit was streamed on Youtube yesterday and is available to watch, in case anyone interested has 4 hours to spare.

The beginning is the worst evidentiary document I have ever read. It sounds more like prose, possibly Dickens. Don’t get me wrong, I like Dickens, but “factual” government documents should not be written like this.

 

[fatmanatee]

The beginning is the worst evidentiary document I have ever read. It sounds more like prose, possibly Dickens. Don’t get me wrong, I like Dickens, but “factual” government documents should not be written like this.

It sounded like something I'd do when I needed to stretch a college essay to the minimum page requirements, only way more dramatic.

 

[The Jackal]

Everything beyond this was rendered meaningless by this statement.

It’s something required by all 2,000 special districts in FL. It wasn’t required for the 6 set up prior to the Florida Constitution, RCID was one of those 6. So now they are all on the same playing field. We will have to wait and see when the criminal charges come out. If you don’t think state and federal laws were broken, that’s fine. Your not the one who is sweating right now, when they are going to get served.

 

[SteveH]

I took the time to read it, while some of it was not as professional as I think it should have been. It also raised some serious questions for me. While it has zero impact on me as I don't live there, the portion talking about how Disney had promised "affordable housing, transportation, and other social and community services." But by backing out on that promise it pushed those needs and expenses on other jurisdictions to address. The mention of the impact fees and traffic on I-4 appear to be valid arguments for why the RCID & Disney abused the public trust.

 

[Disney Bobby]

I took the time to read it, while some of it was not as professional as I think it should have been. It also raised some serious questions for me. While it has zero impact on me as I don't live there, the portion talking about how Disney had promised "affordable housing, transportation, and other social and community services." But by backing out on that promise it pushed those needs and expenses on other jurisdictions to address. The mention of the impact fees and traffic on I-4 appear to be valid arguments for why the RCID & Disney abused the public trust.

Yeah, they actually de-annexed the property for Golden Oak, not that would qualify as affordable housing anyway.

 

[Brian Noble]

You mean to tell me that a company made some promises to get a tax break that it never followed through on? Get right out of town!

More seriously: building an economy on tourism, an industry rife with low-paying jobs, means that the social safety net is going to be stressed. The Fogelsong book I mentioned above has a good analysis of this.

 

[The Jackal]

Why did RCID pay tens of millions of dollars for a power plant that has never produced electricity and WDW is in control of. Thats right it has never produced electricity, was paid for by municipal bonds. Disney buys 100% of the electricity it uses. Even though there is a solar farm on property. That land is leased to a company and Disney buys electricity from them.

 

[OKW Lover]

Why did RCID pay tens of millions of dollars for a power plant that has never produced electricity and WDW is in control of. Thats right it has never produced electricity, was paid for by municipal bonds. Disney buys 100% of the electricity it uses. Even though there is a solar farm on property. That land is leased to a company and Disney buys electricity from them.

Not sure where you got this information but it is incorrect. A look at RCID's annual report of utilities system from 2022 shows that it does indeed produce some amount of electricity.

Take a look here. https://www.oversightdistrict.org/documents/

 

[SteveH]

... Disney buys 100% of the electricity it uses. Even though there is a solar farm on property. That land is leased to a company and Disney buys electricity from them.

That type if situation really isn't that big of a deal. Leasing the land buying the power makes sense, since Disney isn't the expert in the field of solar power. The other company does the work installing and maintaining and Disney gets the power. The price was all part of the negotiated contract. Now, depending on how the contract is setup then it could be a scheme for tax purposes or something else but my gut says its just a business deal. Its probably no different then leasing a copier vs buying it out right, there are advantages for businesses through leasing.

 

[Strimp]

Not sure where you got this information but it is incorrect. A look at RCID's annual report of utilities system from 2022 shows that it does indeed produce some amount of electricity.

Take a look here. https://www.oversightdistrict.org/documents/

It came from the audit, what you are referencing was before the independent audit. Where all this gets tricky, is the use of municipal bonds and the co-mingling of taxpayer vs. corporate funds.

 

[irlandaise]

It came from the audit, what you are referencing was before the independent audit. Where all this gets tricky, is the use of municipal bonds and the co-mingling of taxpayer vs. corporate funds.

The new audit says:

There are 57 other taxpayers in the District and many more tenants whose leases with Disney require them to pay property taxes to the District. Yet because the District lacked representation for these non-Disney taxpayers and businesses, RCID decisions disproportionately benefited Disney, leaving other businesses at a disadvantage.

Unless I missed it, I don't see any mention of how much Disney pays in taxes vs. how much the other taxpayers pay. Anyone got those numbers?

 

[HokieRaven5]

The new audit says:

There are 57 other taxpayers in the District and many more tenants whose leases with Disney require them to pay property taxes to the District. Yet because the District lacked representation for these non-Disney taxpayers and businesses, RCID decisions disproportionately benefited Disney, leaving other businesses at a disadvantage.

Unless I missed it, I don't see any mention of how much Disney pays in taxes vs. how much the other taxpayers pay. Anyone got those numbers?

The Fiscal 2023 Continuing Disclosure should come out in the spring but here is the Fiscal 2022 Disclosure:

https://www.oversightdistrict.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2022-Continuing-Disclosure.pdf

In 2022 TWDC paid approximately $148M in ad-valorem taxes to the district, and another $139M towards utilities.

Disney accounted for 86% of the overall funds collected by the district.

The Walt Disney Company is accountable for 87% of the ad-valorem taxes. Disney is the majority taxpayer in the district. The next highest pays less than 3% of the ad-Valorem taxes.

Whenever taxpayer is mentioned, that actually means Disney, and other landholder companies, not individuals.

 

[irlandaise]

The Fiscal 2023 Continuing Disclosure should come out in the spring but here is the Fiscal 2022 Disclosure:

https://www.oversightdistrict.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2022-Continuing-Disclosure.pdf

In 2022 TWDC paid approximately $148M in ad-valorem taxes to the district, and another $139M towards utilities.

Disney accounted for 86% of the overall funds collected by the district.

The Walt Disney Company is accountable for 87% of the ad-valorem taxes. Disney is the majority taxpayer in the district. The next highest pays less than 3% of the ad-Valorem taxes.

Whenever taxpayer is mentioned, that actually means Disney, and other landholder companies, not individuals.

Thanks. I would have guessed well over 90%, but 86% is still a huge percentage. And the next highest being <3% is also telling. This is not a normal business/residential area as the mentions of the other taxpayers would suggest.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

I would like to check the OP's fishing license