Disney World is reminding Floridians about its contribution of $6.6 billion in tax revenues and its support of 263,000 direct and indirect jobs at the same time the company is suing tax officials over what it says are inflated property tax bills.
Disney filed a lawsuit on Dec. 11 in the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Orange County, naming as defendants Property Appraiser Amy Mercado, Tax Collector Scott Randolph, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) and Jim Zingale, executive director of the Florida Department of Revenue.
“The assessments (of properties listed in the lawsuit) do not represent the just value of the subject property as of the lien date because they exceed the market value and therefore violate article VII, section 4 of the Florida Constitution,” the legal complaint states.
The Disney properties mentioned in the Orange County lawsuit include Epcot, the Magic Kingdom Theme Park, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon.
The lawsuit is one of about a dozen legal complaints Disney has filed over taxation issues in mid-December, according to the Florida Politics website.
A CFTOD spokesman said the lawsuits are par for the course for Disney. The district, whose members were appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, now oversees Disney operations in Central Florida.
“This is nothing new and has been Disney's modus operandi for decades to avoid taxes that pay for public education and other public services,” Alexei Woltornist said in a statement emailed to the Florida Record. “At our last board meeting, we had several governance and accounting experts present their audit of district operations during Disney's time controlling the district board. These experts all raised serious concerns regarding irregularities with Disney paying its fair share. Every other business in the region has to pay these.”
In its Orange County lawsuit, Disney calls on the court to set aside “excessive” property tax assessments that are not in sync with professional appraisal methods and provisions of the state’s constitution and to issue new tax bills with reassessed amounts. The company is also seeking reimbursement of its legal costs to advance the taxation lawsuits.
In November, Disney released the results of a new economic study from Oxford Economics that calculated Disney generated $40 billion in economic activity statewide in 2022. The figures indicate that directly or indirectly, Disney supports one of every 32 jobs in the state.
“Without Disney’s statewide job impact, Florida’s unemployment would jump from 3% to 5.4%, which would take Florida from the 21st lowest unemployment rate among all 50 states to the second highest unemployment rate in the country,” the study states.
Of the $6.6 billion in tax revenue that Disney generates, about $3.1 billion goes toward annual state and local tax revenues, which in turn fund public schools, law enforcement, parks, roads and other essential services, according to the report. The economic numbers were generated before the new CFTOD took over from the former Reedy Creek Improvement District – a special district that state lawmakers phased out after contending it was too subservient to Disney.
"Disney is an economic catalyst to the state of Florida generating billions in economic activity, either directly, or indirectly through its supply chain and the spending of employees," Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, a division of Oxford Economics, said in a prepared statement.