While Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Disney World are preparing to go to battle in federal and state court, the battle over the changes to Disney World’s special District has been having a significant impact on the grassroots level already. Employees of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District were recently informed they would be losing the Disney World annual passes that came as a perk of employment, and they’re now being told they owe $2 million in back taxes on the passes they previously received.
The Orlando Sentinel obtained a memo written by district administrator Glen Gilzean in which he informs employees that the Annual Passes that had been available previously were a taxable benefit, and that “previous leadership chose not to inform staff” about this fact. Gilzean says he working with the IRS to try and remedy the situation in a way that doesn’t require the employees to pay the outstanding taxes.
Some benefits that employers can offer employees are non-taxable, but it appears the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District feels that these passes do not qualify. Certainly, the district could also pay these taxes, but it will likely have to do so if it doesn’t saddle the employees with the cost, and since the overwhelming majority of the revenue the district gets comes from Disney itself, ultimately it’s Disney paying the cost anyway. Disney World is functionally paying for both sides of its state lawsuit against the board.
While this question will certainly need to be properly addressed to get everybody on the right side of tax laws, it won’t be an issue going forward, because the CFTOD recently ended the Disney World annual pass perk for employees. Disney World sent the board a bill for $2.5 million to pay for the benefits that employees had used in the park, which set off a firestorm. Several employees of the district spoke out in favor of the AP perk, with some claiming the pass was a major reason they chose to go to work for the district in the first place, it was available to both current and retired employees.
In its place, the board is offering employees a $1000 stipend, which they can use on anything, including buying the APs themselves, though the previous employee perk apparently covered employees and their families, and $1000 certainly isn't enough to buy passes for even a small family.
If the district is going to cover the cost of the taxes, it could have done so quietly. The fact that everybody was told about this was likely a very intentional way to attempt to curry favor with employees. Evidence has indicated recently that morale is fairly low in the district, with many who have resigned recently reportedly saying that they did not like working there after Governor DeSantis appointed his own board, as part of his ongoing battle with Disney World.
