‘The Contractual Impossibility of Unwinding Disney’s Reedy Creek’

Jacob Schumer, writing for Bloomberg Tax (my favorite website in the world):

Florida simply cannot promise to prospective bondholders that it won’t interfere with Reedy Creek, and then dissolve Reedy Creek. If Reedy Creek is ever dissolved, it would be a monumental and complicated enterprise even on a years-long timeline. The district has a nine-figure annual budget for expenditures, and even ignoring its various debts, it has a plethora of other contracts that somehow would have to be assigned to and divided between Orange and Osceola counties. However, the dissolution will have to wait until all of its bonds are paid in full.

Via this report by Mary Ellen Klas for The Miami Herald, which contains:

Gov. Ron DeSantis responded to the criticism that repealing Disney’s special district would become a burden for area residents. [...] He added that Disney will also be required to pay all outstanding bonds, but he didn’t explain how it will happen.

“Under no circumstances will Disney not pay its debts,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis should just say that Mexico will pay for it.

★ Thursday, 28 April 2022