re: Florida Senate Passes Bill to End Disney’s Special Tax Jurisdiction

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The Florida Legislature can dissolve a district but it’s not a simple task. According to state statute 189.072 a majority of the residents would have to vote in favor of dissolving the district.

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Not so fast. From the text of Senate Bill 4C:

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.

What the Legislature giveth it can taketh away. Note the underlined part of the bill. And since RCID is NOT the only district which fits this criteria (there are five in total, one has an upcoming re-ratification vote) it would be hard for Disney to say they were "singled out".

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Not so fast. From the text of Senate Bill 4C:

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.

What the Legislature giveth it can taketh away. Note the underlined part of the bill. And since RCID is NOT the only district which fits this criteria (there are five in total, one has an upcoming re-ratification vote) it would be hard for Disney to say they were "singled out".

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This is excellent news. Thank you for posting it.

The FL House has now passed the bill. It is now back on DeSantis's desk for him to officially sign it.

LINK

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The Florida House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that would dissolve Walt Disney World’s special governing power in the state.

The move could have huge tax implications for Disney, whose series of theme parks have transformed Orlando into one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, and serves to further sour the relationship between the Republican-led government and a major political player in the state.

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The bill will now head to the desk of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis who has been involved in a war of words with the company after it publicly opposed a bill he signed which prohibits classroom instruction on "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" with children in third grade or younger "or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards."

The passage in the Florida House comes the day after the Florida Senate passed the measure by a vote of 23-16 to dissolve Disney's special status that it was granted by the state over 50 years ago.

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"What I would say as a matter of first principle is I don’t support special privileges in law just because a company is powerful and they’ve been able to wield a lot of power," DeSantis said during a press conference last month."I think what has happened is there’s a lot of these special privileges that are not justifiable, but because Disney had held so much sway, they were able to sustain a lot of special treatment over the years."

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"Look, there’s policy disputes, and that’s fine," DeSantis said earlier this month, "but when you're trying to impose a woke ideology on our state, we view that as a significant threat."

"This wokeness will destroy this country if we let it run unabated," DeSantis added. "So in Florida, we take a very big stand against that."

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Hmmm