Comments by "The Dude" (@The00Dude) on "DeSantis torches Newsom with jaw-dropping line about father-in-law" video.
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@ryanhoffman5477 TRUTH from a MAGA clown! Priceless! Ronnie has been caught lying over and over! DeSantis used repeated misrepresentations and outright falsehoods to describe both Disney’s previous and new tax and regulatory frameworks.
For example, DeSantis claimed that Disney would finally be forced to pay its “fair share” that it avoided in the past. “You had infrastructure feeding into the theme park that was paid for by all the citizens of Central Florida, and Disney really got a free ride on that. Now they can be taxed for that,” he said.
In fact, Disney property has one of the highest total tax rates in the state. It pays all the taxes due to the counties and school boards for its acreage, and then pays additional “mills” for roads, water and sewage, utilities, and fire and police protection on its own property.
At another point, DeSantis suggested that Disney’s spending on its own infrastructure had burdened Florida taxpayers. “They were able to get huge amounts of benefits without paying their fair share of taxes, and even racked up $700 million of municipal debt,” he said.
In reality, Disney’s bond debt is paid only by taxpayers within the Reedy Creek Improvement District boundaries ― in other words, Disney itself, except for a few small parcels it has sold to hotels.
DeSantis said the new law puts Disney on par with all of the other Central Florida attractions: “Disney is going to be treated like SeaWorld is treated or like any of these others.”
That is also not true. While under a renamed board, Disney still has its own taxing district, which Universal Studios and SeaWorld, for example, do not. And because the district is a tax-exempt entity, a parking garage on Disney property does not have to collect sales tax, while those at the other theme parks do.
DeSantis accused local governments of trying to take advantage of last year’s legislation to raise taxes. “It will prevent local governments dominated by leftist politicians from using this situation to raise local taxes,” he said of the new law.
But passing along Disney’s accumulated debt to Orange and Osceola county taxpayers was not optional for officials in those counties in the event Reedy Creek was dissolved. Rather, it is required under state law governing special districts.
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