What does a BIDEN Presidency look like?

[Jacob]

So Kevin McCarthy and his tapes. Big deal or not?

[Admiral Yi]

Link me baby.

[Razgovory]

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2022/04/22/audio-tape-kevin-mccarthy-donald-trump-dlt-chalian-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/

Back when there was hope when the GOP would do the right thing.

[alfred russel]

So interestingly the Florida legislature appears to be willing to go along with DeSantis' attack on Disney. This is some interesting stuff--Disney has been a reliable contributor primarily to Republican candidates for decades, I see this as a major opening front in the war between the "New GOP" and corporations. I wouldn't be shocked if in a decade's time the GOP is by far receiving less political support from corporate donors, probably by a pretty significant ratio if trends like this continue.

It looks like in terms of central Florida (which is no Democratic bastion by any means), it is mostly a net loss to do what DeSantis is asking for--which is dissolving the Reedy Creek Improvement District that operates Disney World. Right now Disney World does not pay full taxes to local governments (it does pay some local property tax though, and I believe always has), if the Improvement District is dissolved Disney can no longer legally operate a police department and would likely not be able to operate the fire department or EMS. This would mean Orange and Osceola counties would have to step in. The easiest way to do so would be to transfer those departments to those county governments. The Tax Collector of Orange County has said the cost of assuming responsibility for these services would be around $105m/yr net, even factoring in Disney now paying more local taxes. It would essentially require a 15 to 20% hike in the local property tax rate to cover the gap.

The Reedy Creek District also has $2bn in bonds outstanding, if it no longer exists as a legal entity the local governments become responsible for holding and servicing that debt. Note that currently Disney funds payments to these debts out of its own revenues, it appears that there is a decent chance DeSantis "punishment" for Disney will reduce Disney World's operating overhead by shifting the cost of emergency services on to the tax payers, and will reduce a bond liability they indirectly were taking care of by $1.5-2bn.

Should private corporations be given their own territory to self govern? 

[Syt]

So Kevin McCarthy and his tapes. Big deal or not?

I feel GOP may be at a point where nothing short of shooting a an opposing lawmaker on the senate floor would move the needle for their support (and even then it would probably increase their votes, not decrease them).

[The Minsky Moment]

Should private corporations be given their own territory to self govern? 

That ship sailed long ago - there are hundreds of privately controlled special districts across the US.

You can bet that DeSantis isn't going to touch these guys: https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.holding_company_of_the_villages_inc.d78adc0a3fcfef13d338cd90e15be78d.html

[The Minsky Moment]

In case anyone still thinks the Disney thing has anything to do with anything other than political retaliation against Disney for exercising their speech and petition rights, the legislative bill abolishes only those private controlled special districts established prior to 1968.

The Reedy District was established in 1967.

[alfred russel]

In case anyone still thinks the Disney thing has anything to do with anything other than political retaliation against Disney for exercising their speech and petition rights, the legislative bill abolishes only those private controlled special districts established prior to 1968.

The Reedy District was established in 1967.

I don't know of anyone who ever thought otherwise.

[Razgovory]

In case anyone still thinks the Disney thing has anything to do with anything other than political retaliation against Disney for exercising their speech and petition rights, the legislative bill abolishes only those private controlled special districts established prior to 1968.

The Reedy District was established in 1967.

I think we may have found our "competent authoritarian that comes after Trump"

[The Minsky Moment]

It's possible he's just an asshole.

[Josquius]

It's annoying as abolishing Disneys special government rights is a good thing.... But coming in this manner...

[grumbler]

In case anyone still thinks the Disney thing has anything to do with anything other than political retaliation against Disney for exercising their speech and petition rights, the legislative bill abolishes only those private controlled special districts established prior to 1968.

The Reedy District was established in 1967.

Any chance this gets tossed as a Bill of Attainder?  It sure looks like one.

[The Minsky Moment]

Any chance this gets tossed as a Bill of Attainder?  It sure looks like one.

A bill of attainder requires punishment (not removal of a legislative privilege), and if a rational, non-punitive purpose can be raised, then there is a defense.

[Admiral Yi]

Listened to the McCarthy tape (sorry Raz, didn't see your link).

Nothing will come of it.  Democrats will fume that they are vindicated and Republicans will find a way to fit his disloyalty to Trump into their crowded cognitive dissonance.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Should private corporations be given their own territory to self govern? 

My old conservative principles would say "no", and while I have done more research in it on the past few days, I had always gotten the impression that Reedy Creek was a tad "beyond" what is normal in most states. That being said there's a lot of special carve outs for big corporations that go on in most States, this is actually the sort of capitalism I've never been a big fan of--when you get tons of government benefits solely because you're a big business, it kind of shits on the idea of a free market. While I think the self-governance stuff is fairly unique down in Florida, there's tons of special tax districts and other shenanigans that many states do (look into special tax districts that get setup for most professional sports arenas/stadiums for a good example of the moneyed interests basically playing by very different rules than you or me.) Those are more philosophically dear to my heart because most of my income now comes from real estate investments including a stake in a townhouse development my wife and I have been involved in for years and we obviously don't get tons of special tax treatment from the Commonwealth, but Dan Snyder and the Washington Whatevers do.

All that being said, Reedy Creek is significantly different enough that it's a pretty complicated situation. After doing more research on it I see that the tax authorities of both counties in question are saying that dissolving the district will be a pretty significant net tax increase on the local residents--even factoring in projected increase in tax collections. It looks like the main benefit Disney was getting from the district was control particularly of zoning, and it allowed them to bypass some of the cumbersome bureaucracy for major building projects that other similar projects would have to go through. From a straight economic/fiscal perspective, operating the District was more expensive to Disney than not operating the District, and obviously the other major theme parks in Florida don't have these special Districts and do just fine. The overall Disney Parks segment is a pretty big part of Disney's business and is fairly profitable, so I think they were fine taking in a little less money overall but getting greater control of the park.

However, it is not the "punishment" of Disney it is being sold as when it's a net financial gain, and net financial punishment for local residents.

On a meta level I'd probably be in favor of dissolving the district if I was a Floridian, but I would probably not be in favor of dissolving it during a special session convened to finalize legislative districts, with no committee studies, local impact studies, zero coordination done with the local officials of the two affected counties etc. As someone who has been involved in a lot of local government shit over the years, I am never a huge fan of the state politicians shitting on localities with no input or collaboration with them. This is a significantly complex task that if you're going to dissolve the district it should go through the normal legislative process and likely have a much longer phase in than the proposed 14 months or whatever.

On an even more meta level I find it hilarious that you have Republicans openly saying corporations need to "shut up" about politics, when it is largely the GOP that has vigorously enshrined the right of corporations to spend basically unlimited amounts of money on political speech.