According to a tweet from Florida House Republican Spencer Roach, legislators have held two meetings in the past week to discuss repealing the 1967 Reedy Creek Improvement Act.
In short, the 1967 Reedy Creek Improvement Act created a special taxing district that would act with the same authority and responsibility as a county government. The legislation said that landowners within the Reedy Creek Improvement District, primarily Walt Disney World, would be solely responsible for paying the cost of providing typical municipal services like power, water, roads, fire protection etc. Local taxpayers, meaning residents of Orange and Osceola County, would not have to pay for building or maintaining those services.
As tensions between Disney and the state of Florida continue to escalate over the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, it appears that some Florida lawmakers want to strip Disney of this special taxing district, perhaps even putting the burden of paying for municipal services onto taxpayers in Orange and/or Osceola Counties.
While there has been no indication of any forward progress from the talks, this is another example of rising tensions between Florida’s largest employer and a portion of the Florida government at a time when Disney is in the process of relocating thousands of jobs from California to Central Florida.
On the official Reedy Creek Improvement District website, the department says that “the cooperation and commitment between the Reedy Creek Improvement District and Walt Disney World Company is as strong today as it was when the District was created in 1967. The result is an example of how a working partnership between business and government can be prosperous for both sides.”
Reedy Creek Improvement District By The Numbers
- 134 miles of roadways and 67 miles of waterways built and maintained
- 250,000 daily guests
- 6-8 minute response time for fire and EMS
- 60,000 tons of waste managed
- 30 tons of aluminum, paper, steel cans, cardboard and plastic containers recycled every year
- 22,800 water samples collected by RCID scientists from 1,500 locations on the property for testing every year
- 90,000 analyses conducted to make sure that water quality meets or exceeds state and national standards. Water draining from the south end of the District is generally cleaner than when it entered Reedy Creek at its north end.
- 2,000 vendors, suppliers and contractors used to provide a high level of public services for visitors
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!