Property owners in the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) are to have their taxes cut by 7 percent.
The Board of Supervisors on July 26 unanimously approved the decrease in property taxes over the 2024 fiscal year.
“We heard from constituents loud and clear at public meetings and while out and about in the community,” said district administrator Glenton Gilzean. “They do not want their tax rates to go up. We took their concerns to heart.”
He added, “The district staff has worked diligently the past few months to find ways to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars—while ensuring a world-class experience for the millions of people who travel to our district from around the world. We’re proud of the result.”
Specifically, it is a 6.8 percent decrease in the “millage rate” from 13.9000 in 2023 to 12.9500 in 2024. One mill is equal to $1 in taxes that are due per $1,000 of taxable assessed property value.
The rate cut, the district explains in its press release, was arrived at after considering the property assessments made by publically elected tax appraisers in Orange and Osceola counties and made possible due to the elimination of “waste and abuse” from the previous administration.
Disney Had ‘No Board Policies’
Board chairman Martin Garcia recognized during the deciding meeting that the drop in taxes might have come as a surprise to those who would be affected, as the board significantly increased its spending over the past fiscal year.The extra spending, Mr. Garcia said, was necessary due to problems related to Disney—the district’s most prominent resident.
“When we first were appointed to this position, one of the things that I quickly realized—which was highly unusual because I’ve served on the board of a special district and the board of other government agencies—is that there were no board policies. None,” he said during the meeting.
He also revealed that the previous board had no chief financial officer.
“I knew that this board was going to have to bring in professionals and create and develop board policies for this board. So that we could function as an honest, open, transparent, independent government. And I knew that would cost us some money.”
A national firm called Personal Recourses Advisory Group (PRAG) was brought in to serve as the board’s financial advisers, he said, to “give us advice and recommendations on what we need to do as a board to make sure that we’re providing the financial transparency that an independent government should be providing.”
Policies proposed and passed with unanimous support during the latest board meeting included a “Fund Balance Policy,” and a “Conflict of Interest Policy.”
“A fund balance policy sets a long-term goal of what your fund balance or reserves should be,” said PRAG adviser Wendel Gardner.
“This policy has a number of different types of reserves to make sure that you are able to weather any unforeseen, hopefully, any unforeseen circumstances.”
Mr. Gardner recommended the policy have an “unassigned balance” but hold at least $2 million for natural disasters.
Mr. Garcia also mentioned that both state and federal legal counsel added to the increased spending to fight Disney in both ongoing lawsuits.
He emphasized that it was a former Florida Supreme Court Justice who advised them that Disney’s 11th-hour development agreements were “void ab initio,” void from the start, and that advice inspired the district to take action themselves.
‘Naughty Things’ Done
Along with its attempted 11th-hour deals, which would have allowed Disney “to basically take over utility services from the district for 10 years,” Mr. Garcia said, “It appears that there are a number of other naughty things that this old board did with district funds.”And that the board members are “going to look for further savings” within the previous administration’s spending habits.
But Mr. Garcia gives credit to Mr. Gilzean’s initial investigation.
“Because of his good work—despite all the other money that we’re having to spend because of the neglect of the old board not adopting the appropriate policies and the suits have been brought in the 11th-hour agreements—He’s found some savings.”
One example Mr. Garcia gave during the meeting was the discovery that the district was spending “$8 million a year in overtime for law enforcement services provided exclusively on Disney properties.”
“We have other taxpayers,” he said. “That doesn’t make any sense to me, and it doesn’t make any sense to anybody on our team that’s looked at it.”
“We are determined to run an open, honest, efficient, transparent, independent government agency that is financially transparent and financially efficient.”
The Walt Disney Company did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for further comment.
