economics
Reedy Creek
The left has suddenly abandoned its hatred of big business and defense of the little guy. Now they support big pharma, they support Disney, and they want companies running the show. I never thought that I would see the day. So Florida just voted to eliminate Disney’s government.
Now that Florida is removing Disney’s right to be its own government, what does that mean? Let’s start by explaining what the Reedy Creek Improvement District is, and what it does.
History
On May 12, 1967 then Governor of Florida Claude Kirk signed a bill into law establishing the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID). On the same date, he signed the incorporation acts for two incorporated cities within the district: Bay Lake and Reedy Creek. (The City of Reedy Creek was renamed to the City of Lake Buena Vista around 1970.) Before that time, nearly all of the area was undeveloped swamp land. Of the 25,000 acres of land within the RCID, Disney owns more 68% of it, RCID owns 29% of it, the State of Florida owns 2% of it, and a small plot of 110 acres belongs to “others.” Reading below, you will see that much of this 110 acres belongs to the board of directors, so they can legally serve on the board.
RCID provides to the area what local governments normally provide: fire protection, street lighting, garbage collection, water and sewer services, permitting, tax collection, and more. The District can issue bonds, and more importantly for Disney, controls all building codes and rules. Since RCID is located in two counties (Orange and Osceola), the ability to make its own rules concerning flood control, building permits, and environmental impact has meant that Disney has been out of reach of any local government regulation for over 50 years.
With more than 500 current employees who handle things like a laboratory for testing water and environmental concerns, an electric power-generating facility, a water treatment facility, recycling center, and a fire department, RCID provides all of the services that a small city does.
Governing Board and Voting
RCID receives all its income from taxes and fees imposed within its boundaries. This is a huge boon for Disney, because they are essentially paying taxes to themselves. RCID has an annual budget of $119 million, with more than $90 million of that being paid by Disney. Considering the value of all of those resorts and theme parks, $96 million in taxes and fees is a bargain.
A board of five supervisors elected by the landowners conducts the business of the district at monthly board meetings. The supervisors must also be landowners. Since Disney owns the land in the district, Disney sells five-acre blocks of undeveloped land to the supervisors. Since, you guessed it, Disney owns virtually all of the land within RCID, Disney decides who is on the board. On completion of their terms, these individuals (who are also employees of Disney) sell their land back to the company. Votes are strictly proportional to the acreage owned, so the company basically governs its own property. The law permits supervisors to vote on contracts between the district and their own companies. The board doesn’t change hands very often. For example, the President of the Board of Directors has only been held by five men since its inception in 1967: Larry Hames (the current President), Donald Greer (who is still on the board), Tom Moses, Tom DeWolf, and Joe Potter.
Losing the RCID
The impact of losing the RCID on Disney will be large. The company will have to pay taxes, water and sewage fees, and more importantly will lose the ability to set its own building codes and regulations. There are those who claim that Disney might simply leave the state. That would be ridiculous. The cost for Disney to replace just the road network that it has built around the parks is over $200 million. There is land development, flood control, infrastructure, as well as the cost of replacing four major theme parks, another six minor theme parks, a hospital, power plant, water and sewage plant, and all 31 Disney owned resort hotels. This would also require the moving of the animals located within the zoo at Animal Kingdom, meaning that wherever the company went would have to have similar climate. It would all need to be near a major airport, and a large source of employees. Even if all of that were possible, Disney would then have to fund and construct the project, which would take a decade and cost billions of dollars. The total assessed value of the property within RCID is $13.7 billion. Moving that just isn’t happening.
So how will this affect Disney and the surrounding area then? Let me start by explaining something I know a lot about: the fire department.
Reedy Creek Fire Department has 138 people staffing four fire stations. (Another 86 personnel provide admin and first aid within the parks, but that service would likely remain a Disney provided resource as it does in other area parks like Universal Studios and Sea World.) They are all union employees who are very well paid. People will leave years long careers at other departments to work for Reedy Creek, mostly due to light call loads and high pay. The RCFD pensions are paid for by the Florida taxpayer, and since pay is so high at RCFD, the pensions are high as well.
Thanks to the good condition of the buildings, Reedy Creek doesn’t run many fires, and the ones they do get are generally wildland fires. More than 97% of the calls that they get are EMS calls. The operating budget for this department is over $32 million a year. In contrast, the Kissimmee Fire Department (located a few miles away) is of similar size and call load, has a budget of $17.1 million a year.
Starting pay for a firefighter paramedic at Reedy Creek is nearly $60,000 a year. If the RCID is disbanded, firefighters may get picked up by Orange County Fire Rescue, where their starting pay is considerably less at $52,700.
They are screaming that the fire department will be eliminated. Scare people into thinking that they will be unsafe. If the firefighters want to continue working there, they are going to have to take a large pay cut. Firefighters with Reedy Creek claim that they aren’t Disney employees, but that is smoke and mirrors. As you have seen on this page, this is a distinction that exists only on paper.
The democrats are pulling out all of the stops. The local news is filled with stories of tax increases, lost jobs, and other disasters. They are really trying to whip up the local public into thinking the sky is falling. None of that will happen. It’s all election year scare politics.
Sources
Reedy Creek Facts from the Office of Program Policy Analysis, 2004
Me
Plumbing Problems, Part 4
This is my only post of the day today because of my plumbing issue, complicated by the fact that I was scheduled to work in the emergency room 9-9 today, until my boss called me at 8 o’clock and rescheduled me to work 1 pm to 1 am today.
For six years running, we have had a plumbing problem. I have been suspecting it was a vent problem. It rears its head every fall and spring. We have had three different plumbers out, and I swear it has cost us thousands of dollars, and no solution has been found. The problem corrects itself after a day or two, so by the time a plumber gets here, they never find anything, but are happy to bill us between $100 and $500 to tell us nothing is wrong. Assholes.
The last plumber to come out (4 months ago) thought I was nuts when I asked him to check the vents. He found two large frogs living in one of the vents. That cost me $200. Other than that, nothing has ever been found. They even put a camera through my pipes two years ago. Nothing was found, but they still billed me $500.
Let me describe the drains in my house: There are two vents in the house: one over the laundry, which shares a drain line with the kitchen. The second vent is over the guest bathroom and shares a drain line with the master bathroom. There are three undersink vents that are covered by air admittance valves.
We are planning on moving next year and converting this house into a rental. If this plumbing issue keeps up, I may just sell it, even though the wife doesn’t want to.
Anyhow, time to get ready for work. I am not looking forward to getting off at 1 am.
Criminals
TSA Agent Lies About Robbery
A TSA agent made a habit out of being late for work. To excuse her latest tardiness, 34 year old Taleta Collier concocted an elaborate story about a man with a knife who tried to rob her. Collier told her supervisor she was visiting her parents’ home when a man armed with a knife attempted to burglarize their vehicle. She said she drew her agency-issued weapon and aimed it at the suspect, causing him to flee.
It isn’t every day that a Federal law enforcement officer has to draw their weapon in the line of duty, so her supervisor requested the Polk Sheriff case number, and the TSA agent provided one. She even texted her supervisor a screenshot of a document that appeared to be a police report. It was soon discovered that the report number was fake, and now the loser is facing criminal charges.
The TSA has been a disaster from the start. All this agency is, is a jobs program for morons who would otherwise be collecting welfare. I can’t believe that we give idiots like this a badge, a gun, and real authority.
- We once had a TSA agent explain a policy to us before they sent us to the Xray machine. Literally 30 seconds later, the TSA agent at the XRay machine told us that the policy had changed. After all of that, they missed the weapon in my wife’s bag.
- I believe that they deliberately screw with people because they can.
- There are many reports of agents improperly strip searching attractive women.
- a minor with autism manages to clear TSA using a drink coupon as identification to pass through the TSA precheck line.
- This was just four months after another woman managed the same thing at the same airport.
- TSA workers spent 20 years smuggling tons of cocaine into the US.
- A terminal at JFK had to be evacuated because a TSA screener forgot to plug in his metal detector.
The list goes on and on.
Tipping
Why Tipping Sucks
I first referenced this video in 2015. Since I don’t have a post ready this morning, I will just rerun it.
Rigging the vote
14th Amendment Lawsuit
A group of five constituents of Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a lawsuit aimed at disqualifying the Georgia Republican from running for re-election over her role at the U.S. Capitol last January. The lawsuit argues that Greene is ineligible to run for federal office under a provision of the 14th Amendment that was ratified after the Civil War. They argue that J6 was an insurrection that bars anyone involved from holding office again.
A Federal judge that was appointed to the bench by Obama is allowing the lawsuit to move forward. If the lawsuit is successful, you can expect it to be used against DJT. To me, this entire thing is a violation of Greene’s Constitutional rights because Greene hasn’t been convicted of taking part in any insurrection, and this lawsuit is then violating her right to due process.
Grooming Children
WTF is Going On?
Simultaneously with the US push for pedophiles, we are seeing the same across the pond in the UK. What the hell is going on?
The Family Sex Show, taking place at The Egg Theatre in Bath, was created by firm This Egg with help from “education and safeguarding specialists”.
It features non-sexual nudity and explores topics such as consent, pleasure, queerness and gender.
The good part here is that parents in the UK are pushing back. The show had to be cancelled because too many of the staff were receiving threats. The creators of the show are still pushing their child grooming agenda. Their website is filled with grooming topics, with every bit of it aimed at children:
- Bodies and Touch
- What is Sexuality
- What are my Pronouns
- Loving Ourselves
- Centering Joy
Uncategorized
Because It’s Been Removed
A local news station published the engineering report from the incident where a child was killed on an Orlando thrill ride. Scribd has since removed it. I have the text from the report, and I will publish it here, so that it will be archived.
This reminds me of the movie “Idiocracy.” We have people who are poorly educated that are making adjustments to complex machinery with no idea how it works. This is because we are busy teaching CRT and SEL instead of math. The ride won’t work unless the light is on, so we will make adjustments to ensure that the light comes on: problem solved.
Brawndo has what plants crave.
Uncategorized
You Can’t Cancel Math
An Orlando station has been running with the story about Florida rejecting math textbooks for teaching other subjects like CRT and SEL instead of math. In the comments, this is where the debate has gone:
I’d like to see what the passages were that were rejected. Culturally Responsive Learning just means including topics that include a wide varied of cultures. Its been known for a long time for math to be more white centric. Standardized tests for instance use examples that are not culturally diverse. There is absolutely nothing wrong with CRL.
JustJenJen
Math is racist. LOL. If I have two apples, and someone gives me two more, how many do I now have? It doesn’t matter what race you are part of, you now have four apples.
My Reply, which actually got more downvotes than upvotes
The debate rages on from there, but JustJenJen keeps making the point that black students doing poorly on standardized tests is prima facie evidence that the tests are racist. This is a fallacy that is pretty widespread amongst the left. As far as the left is concerned, if something harms a black person or deprives a black person of something that they want, that thing is then inherently prejudiced.
This is known as “equality of outcome” or equity. This is different from “equality of opportunity” or simply equality. This entire concept is the basis of their communistic ideology, which is in itself just a grift.
Reality and the universe don’t work like that. Just ask the kid who died in the Orlando thrill ride. It seems that the ride had an interlock that would not allow the ride to operate if the restraint harness wasn’t closed with less than a 3 inch gap between the harness and the seat. This interlock wasn’t allowing large passengers to ride, and was an inconvenience. So the operator of the attraction adjusted one of the seats so that it would allow the ride to operate with as much as a 7 inch gap. Once the ride was in operation with this large rider, the physics involved expanded that opening to as much as 10 inches, allowing the rider to slip through to his death.
Engineering is nothing more than applied math, and math can be an unforgiving bitch. Math doesn’t care what race you are, math is math. You can’t simply cancel math because black people don’t understand it.
Cancel Culture
Tips Below 20% Make You a Racist Homophobe
According to this article, everyone should tip 20% no matter what.
You cannot will yourself to be blind to physical differences. Remove those biases by deciding to tip 20% before ever laying eyes on your server. Don’t even bring the quality of your service into the equation.
First, they attempt to quote scholarly sources like the characters in Harry Potter:
The sometimes-wise Sirius Black tells always-garbage Ron Weasley, “If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” Well said, dog stars!
The odd part is that this moron doesn’t even know that JK Rowling plagiarized that line from numerous historical figures.
Then they appeal to your leftist cred, because if you don’t tip at least 20%, you are a racist or something.
The tipping system also opens up opportunities for us to flex our unconscious biases. Racism, sexism, ageism, and ableism decimate the earning potential of many competent servers.
Not to be appropriative, but: you’re woke, aren’t you? A big part of being woke is admitting that you have unconscious biases.
Then they proceed to make flawed analogies:
I work a salaried job. I have bad days—days where I am grouchy, disorganized, and distracted. You know what my company doesn’t do in response? Send me a smaller paycheck that month.
Here is the flaw in your argument, cupcake: I am not your employer. You don’t work for me, I have absolutely no contractual obligation to you. If you don’t like your job or what you get paid, get a different job. To show you exactly how asinine and flawed your position is, I could use your same logic and apply it to my own job: If I have a great day at work and save your life, will you give me extra money in appreciation? If I have a bad day and kill your mother when I accidentally give her the wrong medication, shouldn’t I still get paid the same amount as when I saved a life?
This mental midget then goes on to make the classic threat that they always make: threaten to spit in your food.