Anaheim City Council has voted to eliminate the tax subsidies that Disneyland called a “flashpoint for controversy and dissension in our community”.
This vote means that the $267 million in tax breaks that Disneyland was set to receive for the recently postponed four-diamond hotel is no more. Agreed upon in 2016, the tax break would’ve given Disney 70% of the occupancy taxes collected at the four-diamond hotel.
The other tax break canceled in this vote was a 45-year ban on theme park ticket taxes at Disneyland. Agreed upon in 2015, Anaheim agreed it would not tax Disneyland tickets for 45 years if Disneyland invested $1.5 billion in the resort. While there are no taxes on tickets at the moment, Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait did not rule out the possibility of implementing them in the future.
Disney may now be exempt from a proposed bill that would require entertainment companies receiving tax breaks to pay their employees $18 an hour.
Earlier this month, Disney announced they were postponing plans on their new hotel after they learned Anaheim would not grant them a tax break for building such a hotel. Plans are still on hold, with no indication from Disney if they will move forward. The bigger implication to the local economy is that Disney has already shuttered the western end of Downtown Disney to prepare for the hotel.
Next comes cutting subsides to Tech companies. Never going to happen. Disney will proceed by cutting cast member hours and raising prices on already over capacity parks. The low wage earner will pay again through less hours and higher taxes.
If they lower prices wont that make parks even more crowded
Corporate Tax subsidies are an insult to the common private taxpayer…
I have a hard time understanding all this tax stuff. I am not good at putting the pieces together. It feels to me that Disney strategically asked Anaheim to get rid of the tax breaks because then Disney would not have to pay $18/hour to cast members. Payroll is a big expense for a company like Disney and it feels like the company wants to do whatever it can to cut payroll. So torpedoing all these tax breaks feels like a strategy to make Disney immune from a mandated hourly raise to $18/hour. It feels to me that businesses like Disney will jump through elaborate hoops to be able to pay workers as little as they can.
The Disney news website CryoFreezer 33 is running an in-depth report on how Disney is once again trying to rig the elections in the Anaheim City Council races insert its own stooges again.