MIAMI — As Florida legislators were rushing through passage of a bill to repeal the special district that governs Walt Disney World last week, they failed to notice an obscure provision in state law that says the state could not do what legislators were doing — unless the district’s bond debt was paid off.
In essence, the state had a contractual obligation not to interfere with the district until the bond debt is paid off, said Jake Schumer, a municipal attorney in the Maitland law firm of Shepard, Smith, Kohlmyer & Hand, in an article for Bloomberg Tax posted Tuesday and cited in a Law and Crime article.
“This means that theoretically, Orange and Osceola counties will inherit upward of $1 billion in bond debt,’’ he wrote in the Bloomberg Tax article. Neither the governor’s office, nor spokespersons for the House speaker or Senate president, would respond to requests for comment about how it intended to resolve the legal conflict.
Proponents of the bill “had some misconception that Disney’s getting some special property tax break for Reedy Creek,’’ said Scott Randolph, Orange County tax collector. “It’s not.” “Unless they want to cut services and cut spending elsewhere, they’re going to have to find a way to absorb $163 million,’’ Randolph said. He estimates that will be about $2,200 a year increase for the average family of four until the bonds are paid off.
He added that Disney will also be required to pay all outstanding bonds, but he didn’t explain how it will happen.Randolph calls the measure the “no lawyer left behind act,” and predicts that there will be many lawsuits, including one from bondholders, alleging the state illegally impaired the contract.
Screw Disney !!! Disney needs to go bankrupt !