Everything you want to do with Florida is in reach, you just have to win the executive and both houses of the legislature. DeSantis won by a pretty small margin last time but I think people will be more careful about the democrat candidate for Governor this election considering that your man last election was found incapacitated in a hotel room with a naked unconscious male prostitute and an impressive amount of meth. Seriously... you have to come up with a better candidate than that and it can't be a nobody. You need someone with better... uhm... vetting.
well i dont need anybody nor do I care who is Governor of Florida... but a vendetta against a company who criticized you is just dickless no matter the party of the person. Desantis just getting full of himself and acting like a child with this one. He needs to reign it in and stop trying to get on TV so much and just focus on his job. we dont need a trump lite.
Dissolving Disney's special district means that the county has to pay for Fire, EMS, and utilities Disney pays for now, lets Disney pay $105 million less in annual property taxes and puts the state on the hook for $2 billion in bonds issued by Disney. Florida taxpayers could face a $1 billion Disney debt bomb if its special district status is revoked https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/21/dis...-face-a-1-billion-debt-bomb-if-dissolved.html The Florida legislature on Thursday cleared a bill that would dissolve Disney’s special improvement district, effective June 2023. If the special district is eliminated, Orange and Osceola counties would have to provide the local services currently provided by the special district. Legislators and tax experts warn the bill creates an even larger potential problem for taxpayers in the form of bonds totaling more than $1 billion. A repeal of Disney’s self-government status in Florida could leave local taxpayers with more than $1 billion in bond debt, according to tax officials and legislators. The Florida House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill that would dissolve Disney’s special improvement district, escalating Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attack on the company over its opposition to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed by critics the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The state Senate passed the bill Wednesday, after it was first introduced Tuesday. It will now go to the governor for his signature. Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District was created in 1967 and gives the Walt Disney Company full regulatory control over Disney World as well as government services such as fire protection, emergency services, water, utilities, sewage and infrastructure. Tax experts and legislators say elimination of the district, which would take effect in June 2023, could have unintended consequences for county taxpayers. Reedy Creek spans 25,000 acres in Orange and Osceola counties and includes Disney’s four theme parks, two water parks and sports complex. It also includes the two small cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, which had a combined population of 53 people in 2020, all either representatives or employees of Disney. To fund the government services of Reedy Creek, Disney effectively taxes itself. While the precise tax flows of Reedy Creek are unclear, Scott Randolph, the tax collector for Orange County, said the Reedy Creek district collects roughly $105 million annually in general revenue. On top of the $105 million, Disney also pays local property taxes. Public records show Disney is the largest taxpayer in central Florida, paying over $280 million in property taxes to the counties between 2015 and 2020. If the special district is dissolved, Orange and Osceola counties would have to provide the local services currently provided by Reedy Creek. And, the $105 million in revenue would disappear, meaning county and local taxpayers would be on the hook for part or all of the added costs. “If you dissolved Reedy Creek, that $105 million in revenue literally goes away, it doesn’t get transferred,” Randolph said. The reason: Reedy Creek is what’s known as an “independent tax district” meaning the tax revenues it generates are in addition to its local tax obligations, rather than a replacement of them. If the district is eliminated, the tax payments to Orange and Osceola counties would not increase, Randolph said. Florida state Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, who has helped champion the bill, told CNBC on Thursday that local taxpayers would not pay more — and could actually benefit from Reedy Creek’s elimination. Fine said the tax revenue that Disney pays would be transferred to local government and could more than pay for the added services. “Those taxes will continue to be paid,” he said. “They will just be paid to Orange and Osceola county instead of this special improvement district. The taxpayers could end up saving money because you’ve got duplicative services that are being provided by this special district that are already being done by those municipalities.” But legislators and tax experts warn the bill creates an even larger potential problem for taxpayers in the form of bonds totaling more than $1 billion. Reedy Creek has bond liabilities of between $1 billion and $1.7 billion, according to the district’s financial filings. Under Florida statute, if Reedy Creek is dissolved, those liabilities are transferred to the local governments — either Bay Lake or Lake Buena Vista, or more likely, Orange and Osceola counties. State Senate Minority Leader Gary Farmer, D-Fort Lauderdale, tried to amend the bill to include further study of the bond debt, but the amendment failed on a voice vote. Farmer said the bond debt could total more than $2 billion and that tax authorities are increasing their estimates as they learn more about Reedy Creek’s outstanding liabilities. “This is a very real impact, the extent of which we don’t fully understand yet,” Farmer said. If the liabilities of $1.7 billion or more are transferred to Orange and Osceola counties, he said, the debt could amount to $1,000 per taxpayer. “If the counties are left holding the bag, the state might have to come to their aid,” Farmer said. “So it’s not even just a tax issue for these two counties. It affects every taxpayer in the state of Florida.” Fine argued that if the bonds are transferred to the counties, the tax revenue that currently funds the bond payments would also be transferred. “The Reedy Creek Improvement District is a local government right now,” he said. “So the taxpayers of that district already owe that money. Yes, the bonds would go to other municipal governments in the same place. But the revenues go along with it. Disney is taxed by this improvement district. Those taxes are used to pay that debt.” Tax experts say that in order for the counties to collect additional revenue from Disney to pay the bond debt, the counties would have to create a new special tax district of their own. Even if they created a new special “Disney” tax district, the tax rate would be capped below that of the current district rate, leaving Orange and Osceola counties with Reedy Creek’s debt service but with less revenue to pay it off. “We shouldn’t be moving at warp speed on something that can have such far-ranging economic impacts,” Farmer said.
Under pressure from book publishers, media (including right-wing outlets), and the public -- Florida attempts to explain on Thursday why it rejected some text books. As outlined by the Miami Herald... Raw Story link used to avoid complaints about the Miami Herald firewall. Florida finally explains why it's accusing math textbooks of 'critical race theory': report https://www.rawstory.com/ron-desantis-math-books/ On Thursday, the Miami Herald reported that Florida officials are finally revealing at least some of the reasons why 28 math textbooks are getting rejected under the state's draconian new laws abolishing the teaching of so-called "critical race theory" in public classrooms. Amid demands for documents from news organizations, requests for information from others and a bit of ridicule on Twitter and cable news, the state responded with follow-up emails to individual textbook publishers puzzled by what was objectionable about their products," reported Allie Pitchon. "At the same time the state informed individual publishers of what must be rectified, Florida provided a handful of examples on its Department of Education website." "One example: A colored bar chart showing how levels of racial bias can vary by age group. It is part of a mathematical brain teaser involving polynomial models and is nestled on the bottom right-hand corner of page 56 in a pre-calculus online textbook consisting of more than 1,000 pages," said the report. "The book is not identified on the state’s website. That’s not allowed, the department indicated, adding the complaint about the chart originated with a member of the public. Two other examples that originated with public complaints make reference to Social Emotional Learning (SEL), a methodology wherein students try to get in touch with their emotions and demonstrate empathy for others." According to the report, some publishers are still not satisfied with this clarification. “We didn’t get notified ahead of time that anything was being rejected. We learned about all of this basically at around the same time that everyone else did,” said one publisher's media representative to the Herald. “Did they point out any specific pages or passages that had material that was not allowed? No. Nothing.” "Critical race theory" is an advanced, college-level theory that seeks to outline how systemic racism informs many of the institutions and laws that built up in the United States over time. Republicans have attacked this concept, and also have tried to broaden its definition to include any mention of race in classrooms at all, or even sometimes just Black people working in schools.
DeSantis will certainly be repulsed at this outrageous sentence... Trump supporter who vandalized LGBT memorial cries in court as his father expresses disappointment On Thursday, Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer told Jerich to write a 25-page essay on the 2016 massacre at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando while he awaits his sentence. “I want your own brief summary of why people are so hateful and why people lash out against the gay community,” he told Jerrich. A Trump supporter who intentionally defaced a Pride mural that was painted on a crosswalk in Delray Beach, Florida, was ordered this Thursday to return to court on June 8 to learn his fate, but in the meantime, he was given a homework assignment, The Palm Beach Post reports. Alexander Jerich, 20, can be seen in a video using his truck to create skid marks on the mural while he was participating in a vehicle caravan that was celebrating the birthday of former President Donald Trump on June 14, 2021. He surrendered to police last year after the video of the incident went viral. In March, he pleaded guilty to criminal mischief over $1,000 and to reckless driving.. This week, Jerich hung his head and cried in court after hearing his father talk about his son’s struggles in school and his inability to make friends. Jerrich then apologized for his actions. “I’ve had problems in the past with fitting in,” Jerich said. “I was just trying to fit in and be accepted.”
What a mess with all of this. Punishing an established large business for speech is quite an interesting use of government power. This is kamakazi government. It’s obviously a political play and cannot be spun as in the interest of the state or tax payers. It’s totally a retaliatory move.
I don't see a vendetta. I see a recognition that a company given massive tax breaks and autonomy has matured to the point that it has become political and no longer requires those tax breaks and autonomy. If you are going to receive such breaks and then declare that you will expend resources trying to overturn Florida law and furthermore that you will force sexualized content into programming intended for children you are going to have a problem. Disney built up trust over about 90 years and then new management torched that trust in the span of weeks. The sheer destruction of market capitalization is epic. Iger will be brought back... within weeks for another run. He is only 71 and has a pretty good idea what product Disney is supposed to be selling.
You mean Disney took a position you dont agree with nor does Desantis and all of a sudden NOW you want to see action taken against a corporation who says something against a proposed bill of the Governor.... In the last 51 years, NOW suddenly a corporate political message offends the governor. Disney can say whatever they want.... does not change the powers of the legislature. yeah... not bias or one sided at all... A 2019 study found Disney dominates the Central Florida tourism industry, according to Oxford Economics, and produced: $75.2 billion annual economic impact for Central Florida. 463,000 jobs. $5.8 billion in additional state tax revenue. The sales tax collected just on the 58 million Disney World tickets sold in 2018 was $409 million. That’s more than what the state will spend this year on school construction and maintenance or the entire Department of Elder Affairs budget. GOP had no issues with Hobby Lobby or any other corporation getting involved when it was an issue they were behind but when the NFL or Disney takes a position they dont like, suddenly the anti-cancel culture becomes a snowflake stew and gets blindsided by limp dick decisions. Disney has a right to free speech. If people want to say they will not go to Disney because they oppose a bill... more power to ya... Disney wont give a shit. A dickless politician trying to take down an entity for disagreeing with them is not the same thing. I cannot believe your free speech, anti-cancel culture, support business ilk see no issue with this.