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And laws can change anytime the legislature decides to change them, and the governor signs them into law. That is what happened. I gave you a whole example of my experience with that, why is that any different, or are you saying I was wronged just as much as Disney was when the rules were changed by those who made the rules, and decided what to fund? For one, the new district does not allow the board to raise the district taxes without Disney agreeing, so by its nature, its likely the district cannot expand to evade any additional taxes over what they are currently doing. This means if Disney wants to build a new parking garage, for example, they'll have to use normal financing sources, and have to pay property taxes on it, and not receive municipal style tax exemptions while doing so. The same as what Universal has to do. And everyone else. By effectively preventing expansion of the district, it will ultimately make the quantity of government smaller.

Likewise, there was never a guarantee that Disney's special tax benefits would continue every year either. Infact, Florida's legislature passed a law giving a a warning to Disney about the expiration of their special tax benefits, much more notice then Walgreens is getting.. Are you arguing its unfair for the legislature to pass laws? I got a story involving me: several years ago, a local county government created an incentive program for home efficiency improvements, offering rebates if you get them certified to a high standard. I met with the county about it, wanting to participate, and asked lots of questions, such as how long the program is going to go on for, and was told they had no end date, they hope to keep it going permanently to help save the environment. It was hard to find a third party inspector, as required by the program, so I had to help subsidize paying for their training and certification, had to change lots of product specs, and produce lots of paperwork to get the incentive money. It was a fair amount of work, but worth it in my opinion. After I got things setup, and got things going really well, I got notified after a year or so that they were discontinuing this permanent program effective immediately due to low participation rates. I asked if they could help cover any of my setup costs, and they of course said no way. They discontinued my program without so much as a vote, just by defunding it. Was I more wronged then Disney? Sure sounds like it! I understand that as a leftist, you believe huge corporations are extremely special and important, and shouldn't have to follow the same rules as everyone else, but Disney couldn't even follow the same rules as other huge corporations, such as Comcast. Even this new district still grants Disney special tax benefits, its just not as many benefits as before, its just more in line with what other corporations with really good lobbyists are able to get, not way past that. You guys are literally flipping out and claiming discrimination when DeSantis didn't even stop the gift to Disney, all he did was make it smaller. He's still being really, really nice to Disney, and could be far worse, much like what Gavin Newsom has done to many corporations in California (often under the guise of "public health", without any scientific evidence) According to the show itself, it contains adult content. I claimed the show involved was sexual in nature, not all drag. I admittedly did not watch the show, but as is, the venue, show host, and state all agree this show contained sexual content, no party involved disputes that. But when has the left ever been concerned with trivialities such as facts they use to justify their hypocrisy? Its easier to just make things up! And the taxpayers of Florida will be pleased to have Disney contribute a little bit closer to in line with other companies in this state. I haven't seen Walgreens say anything similar about the corruption in California. But the Parental Rights in Education bill attempts to address a leading cause of suicide, and something that has led to a lot of people having severe mental issues. It allows responsible parents to get children the help their kids need, and not to keep it a secret from them. Disney has already said, post this issue, they are planning to relocate a lot of jobs from California to Orlando, and has said they are looking forward to working with the board of the new district, and thus far Disney has not even so much as alleged any wrongdoing by the State of Florida or DeSantis, so you clearly care more about this then the alleged victim. You just want tax breaks for those who politically agree with you and to take away fairly earned contracts from those who don't publicly agree with you (they don't even have to side against you), you people are too much.

They are the same type of issue, governments reneging on deals over a company saying something. The difference is Walgreens is losing government contracts in California that they won in a fair and equal marketplace by being the lowest bidder, while Disney had a special contract that was offered to nobody else, and nobody else could get anything like it at all. Newsom is putting Walgreens at a disadvantage against its competitors, DeSantis is putting Disney at an equal footing with its competitors This can't possibly be true. Walgreens was very clear they were not modifying service to the people in California. Liberal media lie. And Walgreens is getting punished for less, all they did was comply with laws in other states and not listen to California's demands that they follow their political ideology, which does not have legal authority in the states where Walgreens is removing a drug. Walgreens was even trying to stay apolitical, but Newsom is demanding they take his side, or they need to pay. Newsom has an established reputation of being a political dictator. He's been ordering companies closed and modifying government contracts for several years now, before this Disney issue even came up. Open your eyes, thats why lots of companies recently left California. Florida law does not allow liquor to be served at sexual shows with children present, this is not a new law. All the hotels have to do to keep their liquor license is comply with existing Florida law, and not allow children to attend drag shows with liquor present. This is yet another time when even far left Bill Maher sided with DeSantis. Yeah, what the far left does is consistently far worse. At least DeSantis is focused on issues effecting our state. The children of Florida are suffering mental health issues, that is believed to be caused by what the far left is pushing in our schools in our state. Newsom is taking away vital medications from the incarcerated in California over political issues happening in another state, as Walgreens said they were not modifying service in his state. More reasonable? Thats a joke.

Where's your posting about Gavin Newsom playing this game with Walgreens right now in California? And with Tesla during COVID? Or if rights are taken away by the left, it doesn't matter?

Supposedly in a future phase it will be a full interchange. With the rest of the south side of Beyond the Ultimate being funded now, it seems insane for them to go this "interim" route, where the next section of I4 Beyond the Ultimate is just going to compound how bad the problems already are. I don't know if the interim improvement schedule is too far along already, but I wish someone in FDOT would realize this makes little sense to not try to cancel the "interim" project and get the Beyond project completed on the entire south end, even if it takes a couple extra years. The interim project and "the tunnel" isn't going to complete much earlier then the rest of Beyond the Ultimate, and northbound will just have a relatively small gap where the express lanes just disappear for no good reason.

Yes, that does appear to be 130mph. Note the train is only going to do 130mph during testing, it will be 125mph when launched, FRA requires passenger rails to be tested and certified 5mph faster then the permitted speed to all track as a margin of error.

Florida does allow all jurisdictions to supersede the Florida Building Code. This is common and written into the law. If you want an obvious examples, many different jurisdictions modify the codes related to pools on where the fence needs to be, if grass is allowed inside the fenced area, etc. Thats why in some areas, you'll frequently see two sets of fences in someone's backyard (one where the person wants the fence, the other where code requires it to be)

I mostly fly the low cost airlines. The main thing I care about is good destinations, and shortest amount of time from arrival at airport to destination. My experience is there seems to be more direct flights with the low cost airlines. I also do prefer the red eye flights personally, none of the major airlines offer "enjoyable" flights, so I'd like to sleep on the plane. Also, I tend not to have delays with that strategy.

Hey, that looks like all palm trees! But its obviously high budget, tastefully done, effectively creating shade with them. That park is amazing in person

And I'm not saying that it is unsafe. There are areas of the building code that are required, even if upgrades make the requirement obsolete (although typically not harmful, except to your wallet) There are also other things done for efficiency, that may make the aesthetics Disney wants impossible, that again they are not required to follow. It also can prevent inspections from slowing down projects because they likely gave themselves more flexibility on when they can happen. You are incorrect. Just to avoid all the RCID drama articles, here's an old one talking about that advantage: https://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20140919/29288/4-government-powers-you-didnt-know-walt-disney-world-could-use

This is simply not accurate, there were 5 special districts that were not restricted to specific purposes out of those 1,900 in Florida, and exactly 1 of those was operated by a single private company, There was only one district that allowed a corporation to not follow the Florida Building Code, and have the full rights of a full municipality, and even more. Disney still has its own district, they created a new one for Disney that is in line with every other special district mentioned in that article and the other 1,900 in the state. Limited purpose for certain area specific infrastructure purposes. Not for tax avoidance, avoiding other state laws like building code, etc...

Disney's moving more jobs from California to Florida, because even with DeSantis hating on Disney, its still a much more business friendly state, and is far easier to deal with. Disney could never get a deal like Reedy Creek Improvement District in any other state. Disney's unlikely to try to campaign further against him. They already fired their former CEO over poor decisions that led to this, and the people in the state overwhelmingly supported the bill Disney went against. DeSantis posted the best numbers in this state in many decades when it came time for re-election.

Are you comparing the combined debt of everyone else previously with a single spending bill by the democrats? And questioning how a single bill that is a significant percentage of our debt can cause inflation? Seriously?

I don't go to Miami very often either, but I definitely will go a few times on the train for the experience. Everything I've heard on Brightline is the trains and service are among the nicest in the world, and easily nicest in the US, even if we couldn't get it to be thaaat fast (although its still faster then driving).

Brightline said just a few days ago that they're expecting a late 2Q launch, so June is there target. I believe testing should start next month.

I'm assuming The Ranch is Deseret Ranch, while I believe is the largest contiguous land piece left in Central Florida, and largest cattle ranch in the nation. It does seem like they are trying to, they've gone as far as to create their own restaurants and hotel to try to match the experience they want and to attract the companies. I did forget about the Osceola Parkway extension, that does make Disney's positioning make a bit more sense.

I'm assuming The Ranch is Deseret Ranch, while I believe is the largest contiguous land piece left in Central Florida, and largest cattle ranch in the nation. It does seem like they are trying to, they've gone as far as to create their own restaurants and hotel to try to match the experience they want and to attract the companies. I did forget about the Osceola Parkway extension, that does make Disney's positioning make a bit more sense.

I also live in Florida as a gay man, and DeSantis is a reason I'm staying put. He's made me feel free and more comfortable expressing myself, without worrying about violent reactions from those who have different opinions. Florida has been much more accepting of me and my ideas then other places I've had to work, including places like California. The media portrays DeSantis and Florida way differently then reality. I definitely feel DeSantis supports my personal choices more then these other places you've mentioned, and I don't feel I'm being used as a political pawn. I would not feel safe in a state where we did not have a free speech absolutist as governor, that is the most necessary thing for me to feel safe.

DeSantis announced they're accelerating construction of 20 road projects throughout the state of Florida as a result of the surplus we had under his leadership. Included on the list is accelerating the final I4 Ultimate south alignment forward by approximately 10 years... I4 Ultimate, with the 2 express lanes in each direction will start construction next year between Osceola Parkway and Champions Gate, and continuing south to US27 in 2027, at a cost of $2 billion. My understanding is this also eases the ability to construct Brightline in the median as well to Tampa. The one weird thing is it is leaving out segment 2, which means there will be a gap in the ultimate express lanes in that 4 mile section once completed... well, kind of, they previously approved an interim project in the westbound direction to add 1 express lane, and to add both express lanes as part of the Sand Lake Road interchange starting construction now. Hopefully they can accelerate that last 4 miles as well

I've detailed previously exactly what taxes Disney is avoiding paying. My source is not Fox News, its the Orange County Tax Collector. Its public record, they don't pay taxes on things that their competition, such as Universal, does pay taxes on. Don't believe the liberal media.

Here's the site plan:

Exactly! And lets not forget that Universal made the exact move from California to Orlando about 20 years ago, with great success, and they announced they are expanding and building a new worldwide HQ facility for this division at Universal here in Orlando just a year or so before Disney announced they were doing it here. And the point is to cut costs... if some expensive people in California quit to avoid doing the move, Disney can replace them with Orlando's talent for far less money. Its expected when they make these moves a significant portion will quit, and that's the point.

The entire Reedy Creek situation is so overblown. Literally the entire argument is if Disney should operate under the same set of rules as every other business n the state of Florida, a very business friendly state, or if they should get special privileges and be able to operate their own government. Disney can't get anything better anywhere else. DeSantis literally said when signing the law they will create a new RCID to replace the old one. Thats never been doubted by anyone at Disney. They are just losing the ability to have their own private government for tax avoidance purposes, but no service or anything is going away. Disneys been super clear they will not consider a train that connects Disney to Universal for many decades now. I don't think thats changing.

I assumed it disappeared because of COVID, thats pretty dumb. In other news, Disney has filed its site plan for its Lake Nona campus. From OBJ: As outlined, the six office buildings will total 1.46 million square feet in space, with buildings as small as 167,000 square feet and as big as 354,000 square feet. The office buildings will range in height between four and seven stories. Per the project's entitlements, the maximum allowable height on the campus is 10 stories. The two flex buildings will total 346,000 square feet — 100,000 and 246,000 square feet, respectively — and each are planned to be four stories in height, though a memo included with the project materials notes that the floor-to-floor height in those two buildings may exceed the 25-foot per-story standard. The three parking garages each will be six stories tall and total 4,625 parking spaces. The one-story central plant building is expected to be 20,000 square feet in size. Full article (behind paywall) https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2023/01/23/disney-lake-nona-campus-new-plans-florida.html