Walt Disney World President Jeff Vahle releases a statement on the apparent demise of Reedy Creek Improvement District

Feb 10, 2023 in "The Walt Disney Company"

Posted: Friday February 10, 2023 3:39pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Following this week's votes in the Florida State House and Senate, the bill to make fundamental changes to the Reedy Creek Improvement District appears to now be a certainty. 

 

Walt Disney World President Jeff Vahle has just released a statement that appears to concede defeat and accept that the proposed changes will come into effect.

"For more than 50 years, the Reedy Creek Improvement District has operated at the highest standards, and we appreciate all that the District has done to help our destination grow and become one of the largest economic contributors and employers in the state. We are focused on the future and are ready to work within this new framework, and we will continue to innovate, inspire and bring joy to the millions of guests who come to Florida to visit Walt Disney World each year."

-Jeff Vahle, President, Walt Disney World.

The bill that has passed moves to replace the governing body's board with five members appointed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. In addition, the Reedy Creek Improvement District would be renamed "Central Florida Tourism Oversight District."

The final step for the bill is for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to sign it into law, which at this point would appear to be a certainty.

The creation of the Reedy Creek Improvement District in 1967 allowed Disney the luxury of establishing its own independent government that handles many aspects of the Walt Disney World property, including emergency services, infrastructure, and construction permitting.

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    MR.Dis9 days ago

    To give an example, I am retired from JP Morgan Chase, the provider of Disney Visa charge cards. I was eligible to purchase WDW and Disneyland tickets thru a portal for 20% off the rack rate. I do not know if that is still the case. While I was an annual pass holder purchasing thru DVC, I would purchase tickets for my kids when they visited WDW with their families. It was a significant savings.

    flyakite9 days ago

    Should anyone be interested and would like to attend:

    michmousefan22 days ago

    cranbiz23 days ago

    Not really a distortion of facts. Yes, RCID was a legally a separate entity from TWDC. In reality, it was controlled by WDW, which is why DeSantis had a hard on for getting revenge on TWDC for "don't say gay" and other woke policies by trying to revoke the district. He couldn't do that for many reasons so he got the law changed to appoint his own governing board. As we know, that really did fail miserably and there is now a board that is not antagonistic towards Disney. There is a charge for those benefits to the third party entities in some way, shape or form. WDW doesn't give anything away for free. RCID (and many third party operating participants) pay for those benefits (usually at a very reduced rate). So, in the case of RCID, Disney paid for those benefits through it's tax assessments because RCID has no income of it's own except for income received from it's taxpayers (of which TWDC is it's largest and majority taxpayer). So, what I said was true. WDW paid for the benefits granted by RCID to it's employees and RCID, by granting those benefits paid WDW back for them. This keeps everything legal. Yes, CFTOD wanted to stick it to Disney by refusing to pay WDW for those benefits, which in turn stuck it to the employees. RCID and CFTOD employees were never WDW Cast Members, they were employees of RCID or are/were employees of CFTOD.

    LAKid5323 days ago

    It takes little time to release a completed report. Unless that report didn't say exactly what you wanted it to say....

    LAKid5323 days ago

    Governor's office receives a FOIA (govt in the Sunshine) request... "What's sunshine?" 🙄

    LAKid5323 days ago

    🤫

    LAKid5323 days ago

    Florida statute says state records are open to the public. It doesn't say how quickly agencies have to provide the info. When I worked for various state agencies, we tried getting the requested info as quickly as possible. If it was a state legislator or governor's office, yesterday wasn't fast enough. 😉

    LAKid5323 days ago

    Bingo

    Chi8423 days ago

    So they had to ferret it out as opposed to the government releasing it to the news agencies. That’s understandable. Those requests can take a surprisingly long time to fulfill.

    Stripes23 days ago

    WKMG submitted a public records request. That request was just recently fulfilled and the document released. WKMG hasn’t said when they submitted the request.

    Unbanshee23 days ago

    Lol, you must be new here. The state doesn't like to "live in the sunshine" when it comes to matters that the esteemed governor finds personally difficult

    Chi8423 days ago

    The memo is dated June 21. Reporting on it the day after Christmas seems to be the definition of “old news.” Although it could be that Florida dragged its feet releasing it for some reason.

    TiggerDad23 days ago

    When you want to bury a story, you release it at Christmas when no one is paying attention to the news.