Senator Stewart aims to terminate DeSantis' CFTOD and revive original Disney Reedy Creek Improvement District

Nov 28, 2023 in "Reedy Creek Improvement District"

Posted: Tuesday November 28, 2023 4:27am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Linda Stewart, a Democratic member of the Florida Senate, is preparing to file a bill to terminate the Ron DeSantis-created Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.

Stewart, representing the 13th district, which includes northeast and central Orange County, wants to terminate the terms of office of the CFTOD Board of Supervisors and reconstitute the Reedy Creek Improvement District as it existed as of February 26, 2023.

The bill is unlikely to progress, given that the Republican Party controls both the Florida Senate and the Florida House.

Here is the text of the bill via WKMG's Landon McReynolds.

An act relating to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, Orange and Osceola Counties; repealing chapter 2023-5, Laws of Florida, which established the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District; reviving, reenacting, and readopting chapter 67-764, Laws of Florida, and the decree in chancery No. 66-1061 entered by the Circuit Court in and for the Ninth Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida on May 13, 1966, relating to the Reedy Creek Improvement District; reconstituting the Reedy Creek Improvement District as it existed as of February 26, 2023; terminating the terms of office of the Board of Supervisors of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District; providing transitional provisions; providing for construction; providing an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
Section 1. Chapter 2023-5, Laws of Florida, is repealed.

Section 2. Notwithstanding chapter 2023-5, Laws of Florida, chapter 67-764, Laws of Florida, and the decree in chancery No. 66-1061 entered by the Circuit Court in and for the Ninth Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida on May 13, 1966, creating and incorporating the Reedy Creek Drainage District as a public corporation of the State of Florida, are revived, reenacted, and readopted. The terms of the charter for the Reedy Creek Improvement District shall be as it existed on February 26, 2023.

Section 3. The offices and terms of all members of the Board of Supervisors of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District existing as of the effective date of this act shall end as of the effective date of this act, but such members may continue to serve until a successor in office is appointed and qualified. Until successors are appointed and qualified to replace all of the members of the board of supervisors existing as of the effective date of this act, board members, officers, and employees of the district may not sell, dispose of, encumber, transfer, or expend the assets of the district as such assets existed on the effective date of this act, other than in the ordinary course of business

Section 4. This act may not be construed to affect or otherwise impair any existing contract that the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District entered into, or any bond or other instrument of indebtedness issued by the district, from February 27, 2023, through the effective date of this act.

Section 5. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.

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MR.Dis8 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.

flyakite8 days ago

Should anyone be interested and would like to attend:

michmousefan21 days ago

cranbiz22 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.

LAKid5322 days ago

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

LAKid5322 days ago

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

LAKid5322 days ago

🤫

LAKid5322 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. 😉

LAKid5322 days ago

Bingo

Chi8422 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.

Stripes22 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.

Unbanshee22 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

Chi8422 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.

TiggerDad22 days ago

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