Editor, The Beacon:
I must respectfully disagree with the conclusion drawn by your columnist who claimed that the Legislature’s abolition of Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District will result in higher taxes for Floridians (“Ha! They just said ‘Disney’!” Tanner Andrews, June 30-July 6).
There are more than a thousand special-purpose taxing districts in Florida, and Reedy Creek was the only one set up as a sweetheart deal run by a private business.
When the district finally dissolves June 1, 2023, the plan announced by Gov. Ron DeSantis is to replace it with another special taxing district run by the state.
Disney will still be required to fund it, including debt service on the bonds issued by its predecessor.
Disney will then be paying its taxes to an agency run by, and accountable to, the people of Florida, and not simply shifting funds from one of its own pockets into another.
As DeSantis has said: “That debt will not end up going to any of these local governments, it’s not going to go to the state government either.”
It will “absolutely be dealt with (by) the taxpayers who are currently in that district,” and not by other Florida taxpayers. (quotes from Fox 13 News Tampa Bay online, May 16, 2022)
Sounds like a perfectly good plan to me.
John DiChiara
DeLand
