The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District has announced that it will attempt to end a “scheme to funnel $2.5 million back to Disney” in the form of employee benefits. Here’s the announcement:
Today, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District has submitted a referral to the Florida Inspector General regarding millions of dollars’ worth of perks and benefits that the former Disney-controlled Reedy Creek Improvement District funneled back to Disney.
For decades, the former Disney-run RCID used taxpayer funds to provide season passes and amusement experiences to its employees and their family members, cover the cost of discounts on hotels, merchandise, food, and beverages, and give its own board members VIP Main Entrance passes. In 2022 alone, it cost taxpayers over $2.5 million.
In addition to constituting unethical benefits and perks, the scheme raises significant questions regarding self-dealing as the board members were only permitted a maximum of $100 per month in compensation per the Reedy Creek Improvement District Act.
The latest bill sent to CFTOD from Disney features a charge of $492,382.96 for “Q1 FY22 Tickets.” The scheme included the RCID government paying for “discounts” enjoyed by employees on all Disney purchases. Line items include government-paid handouts for “Merchandise Discount Usage” ($16,837.39), “Food & Beverage Discount Usage” ($4,969.52), and “Water Parks Discount Usage” ($3,764.48). It also includes employee handouts for hotel usage at the Disney Yacht Club Resort, Disney Caribbean Beach Resort, and Disney Coronado Springs Resort. The bill can be viewed here.
Immediately upon discovering the scheme, the CFTOD set in motion plans to eliminate it. All CFTOD employees who require access to Disney premises to perform their official duties will still be able to access them.
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!
Make Disney pay for it. They expect taxpayers to fund this? No way
Disney is the taxpayer to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District
They pay in the tax then “gift” 2.5 million to the board that can only be spent at WDW properties. They are taking back a nice percentage the taxes that were paid. There are other legal issues on the horizon, like defrauding the company that financed the movies they make. Hold on tight its going to get bumpy for Disney Fans.
It is Employee benefits which are taxed thru Disney profits. Maybe the state can take your Employee benefits also that your company pays for. Better yet let’s take the high end benefits from the oversight board and the Governor.
This is criminal conduct. Disney will be slapped down for this.
Disney is a tax payer sending a bill other tax payers would be more accurate. The headline is way off. You state yourself that the access needed to do their jobs will not be restricted/ eliminated.
This article may want to be updated to add that they are changing this benefit to a $1000 annual stipend.
There has been no information released or disseminated to us about a stipend
As pointed out by blogger Mike above, DISNEY PAYS THESE TAXES. They are paying to grant their own people reduced-rate or free access to their own parks. It’s this bogus “board” imposed by a scheming “governor” who is the culprit here. He is a scumbag.
This is the type of reply you see from users who get their opinions assigned by CNN. The Board was created by the Florida Legislature and members appointed by the Governor… all of which were elected overwhelmingly by the voting citizens of the state. The only scumbags are those who continue to look down upon the citizens of the state that made Disney what it is.
“DeSantis’ Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Hopes To Eliminate Employee Access to Disney World”
There’s a lot to unpack here. First of all, I disagree that the district’s goal is to eliminate employee access to the theme parks. They simply plan to stop paying for annual passes for board members and their families. If CFTOD board members want to go to Disney World, they will have to pay to get in.
Second, $492,000 in park tickets!? Damn, that’s gotta be a lot of tickets. At about $1,500 for each of the most expensive annual pass, that’s more than 300 annual passes. Granted, I’m sure not all of the $492,000 was for annual passes, but that’s still a lot of cash for park tickets.
Third–and this is the part that I have yet to see anyone discuss–while Disney is now charging the new board for these perks, it is not clear that tax payer dollars were used in the past to pay for them when Disney ran Reedy Creek. It is entirely possible that Disney simply gave the tickets to Reedy Creek board members in the past, and didn’t charge Reedy Creek. That is, Disney opted to give away the passes and tickets, and may or may not have deducted their cost as an expense on their corporate taxes. In any case, I doubt that Reedy Creek had to reimburse or pay Disney–using tax payer dollars–for the tickets, as this was simply a perk Disney provided to board members.
Disney is under no obligation to gift $492,000 in park tickets to the board, and has every right to require CFTOD members and their families to pay to enter the parks.
Thank you! Because it is a conflict of interest to sit on an oversight board AND receive gifts.
You keep mentioning the park tickets and discounts going to the Reedy Creek board members, but you’re leaving out the fact that those benefits were actually being given to all 400 Reedy Creek employees + their family members. It seems clear that Disney wanted to give those who worked “for” Disney but weren’t directly employed by Disney the same park benefits Disney CMs receive. While those 400 District employees will still have access to WDW when needed specifically for their jobs, by cancelling all of the annual passes (and associated discounts), the new CFTOD is indeed adversely impacting the employees’ ability to enjoy WDW with their families during their leisure time. Replacing those annual passes with $1000-per-employee stipends – which certainly won’t cover the cost of annual WDW APs for District employees AND their family members – will result in a drop in attendance by District employees and their families at WDW, thereby hurting Disney. And it’s interesting that the CFTOD is trying to paint Disney (the payer of 86% of all District taxes) as running a “scheme” by using some of its tax dollars to provide annual passes and discounts to District employees and their family members, but then turns around and apparently sees no problem at all with using Disney’s tax dollars to pay $1000 stipends to each District employee.
How much is this is discounts to local corporations and military who they offer discount passes. They spent it they way they wanted to and will cut discounts to the public. They need to worry about how they will pay the taxes of the items they took over from Disney hmmmmm. Yeah the same taxpayer, they suppose to be concerned about.
I can’t get past the fact that the stat of Florida’s government is taking over someone’s business.
And, it seems as if these highly professional all-knowing people know how to run Disney better than Disney!
Isn’t Disney the highest taxpayer in Florida?
And, what’s wrong with giving employees perks?
The only thing wrong is that the government is doing something unethical and illegal.
Stop getting your opinions assigned by CNN and take a Civics 101 class and learn about how the government is the entity that regulates land use and civil services. Not private companies headquartered out of state.
Employees are granted only two day passes a year. Keep in mind these are Employee benefits.
Disney CMs receive free admission to the parks, subject to select CM black-out dates, along with associated discounts. The Disney Parks Main Entrance Pass also grants Cast Members the ability to take family members and friends to the theme parks for free, with some black-out dates and restrictions. CMs also receive a free Disney+ subscription.
Which are untaxed. If your employer bought you Disney tickets… you’d have to claim that as income.
@annette they did not take over Disneys business. Here in Ohio, and every other state, the state has a monitor/oversight run or appointed by the state. They watch over theme parks, festival rides etc. in Ohio it is the dept of agriculture. (Started with the Ohio state fair, one of the oldest in the nation) They used to oversee 5 theme parks, now down to 2 BUT, Cedar Fair is not allowed to govern itself. While w3 can all agree Disney did a fair job up until the take over, there clearly is a conflict of interest. Yes nothing wrong with employee benefits, but the cost comes from somewhere. Tax payers shouldn’t be it for theme park passes or hotel visits for recreation. As I stated previously, and I’m kind enough to not link other Disney blogs, they gave the employees a stipend.