There’ll be a great video down below that’ll be well worth your time, but first, let me get folks who may not be regular OJ readers up to speed. In 2018 Anaheim voters passed Measure L by a pretty healthy margin, requiring any resort businesses enjoying city subsidies to pay their workers a “Living Wage” ($18 an hour by this coming January, and thenceforth pegged to cost of living.) Most voters were thinking of Disney, the largest of those companies, which is accustomed to getting subsidies and funding Council elections, and stingy with their pay.
Well, Disney’s bean-counters sat down, did their math, and determined that the multi-billion-dollar international corporation would rather give up their subsidies than have to pay all their Anaheim workers a Living Wage. So Disney gave up two things they’d determined to be “subsidies” – a tax rebate to build a luxury hotel, and the 45-year promise of NO GATE TAX the Disney-run City Council had made. And Disney washed its hands of Meaure L and a Living Wage.
“But wait!” many of us Anaheim folks cried out, “Isn’t Mickey & Friends a subsidy as well?” And what we were referring to was the 10,000-space parking structure, completed in 2001 with funds from a half-billion-dollar bond THE PEOPLE OF ANAHEIM TOOK OUT in 1996, a bond we are still paying off and will be till the mid-2030’s, and a structure that at the time was the LARGEST PARKING STRUCTURE WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
Oh, you want to hear MORE about this, you say. Well, I got you. This was back when Disney was expanding in Anaheim by building California Adventure, Disney Grand Hotel, etc., and they demanded the city provide “infrastructure improvements,” or else. Or else what? Or else, they darkly threatened, they would build all this in Long Beach instead (a trick noticed and imitated by Angels’ owner Arte Moreno recently to get his way with the Stadium land.)
And it was by this means (blackmail) that Disney got Anaheim to take out this gigantic bond, and build them this gigantic structure. The Mayor at the time was Tom Daly (now Assemblyman and still funded by Disney.) The bond was sold to Anaheim voters as going to “police, parks, bla bla bla,” all the things people love, but it really went to building Disney a giant parking structure.
Well, the silver lining was … wait, sorry, there are no silver linings. For Disney maybe, but not for the people of Anaheim. This garage technically BELONGS to the people of Anaheim, and Disney leases it from us for ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. (Arte must have learned from that too.) And it’s estimated that, at $30 a car, Disney makes $90 million a year gross, maybe $70 million when you subtract their expenses such as maintenance. That SHOULD be OUR money, don’t you think? THEN MAYBE it could actually go to “police, parks, bla bla bla.”
Well, when we’re done paying off that big bond some time next decade, Mickey and Friends will at least still belong to us, right? I’m sorry, dude, you REALLY seem to underestimate the subservience and corruption of Anaheim’s leaders. On payoff of the bonds, ownership of the structure passes TO DISNEY (and we miss out on that dollar-a-year lease!) SOME DARE CALL ALL THAT A SUBSIDY.
Let’s Launch a Lawsuit!
So Disney workers sued. Actually they sued two years ago, but a little thing called Covid slowed the case down. And just this week, Superior Court Judge William Claster ruled in favor of Disney. Using a very narrow (even CRAMPED) definition of “subsidy” that limits it to literal “tax rebates,” Claster held that the parking structure is NOT one, so Disney is NOT covered by Measure L and does NOT have to pay a Living Wage. Sorry “cast members!” The Anaheim government, characteristically equating their interests with Disney’s, released a celebratory statement pissing off most readers (but will they remember at election time?)
Funny. My dictionary defines a subsidy as “a sum of money granted by the government or a public body to assist an industry or business so that the price of a commodity or service may remain low or competitive.” (Yeah, those last few words are hilarious given Disney’s constant ticket price hikes, and lack of competition, but that’s not the issue.) And 2018 voters said yes to a measure “requiring hospitality industry businesses that receive city subsidies to incrementally increase pay for minimum wage employees to $18 an hour by 2022.” Where’s the mention of “tax rebates?” In some fine print no voter perused? Or in Claster’s and Disney’s heads? [UPDATE: Yes, it was in the small print no voter read; see comments and here.]
In any case, Disney workers are going to appeal this ruling, and our “thoughts and prayers” are with them, along with our voices, votes, and pocketbooks.
The Amazing Spectacle of November 2, 2021
I’m still working my way toward preparing you-all to appreciate the video below, which I assure you you’ll love. At last Tuesday’s Council meeting (day after Claster’s ruling) Dr. Jose Moreno – the only Anaheim Council member elected without Disney money – took the opportunity during a Disney-related item to ask questions about this whole Garage deal. What he was asking was “clarifying questions” about the deal, since most folks watching at home don’t know how bad it was.
A nice female Disney lawyer voluntarily came up to answer his questions, and soon came to regret it. At one point she claimed that “Disney built the Garage,” before admitting that the City paid for it. That’s funny! Was she claiming, I wondered, that the Seven Dwarfs did the actual construction work, but that you and I paid them for it? A thought occurred to me:
After some difficulty answering Jose’s questions in a way that wouldn’t piss off her employer, the Disney lady (as you’ll see) looks helplessly at Mayor Sidhu for assistance. And HERE is where it becomes an amazing spectacle. Sounding like he’s breathing fire, Sidhu lashes out at Moreno for DARING to question Disney and the wisdumb of former Disney-loyal Councils. Harry TELLS THE DISNEY LADY TO SIT DOWN. These old matters CAN NOT BE AIRED in public Council meetings (even if we’ll still be paying for them for another decade. YOU are not of her CASTE, sir!)
And at the end of the meeting/video, Jose’s nemesis Trevor O’Neil, the Toady Councilman from the Hills, APOLOGIZES TO THE DISNEY LADY for having to undergo Jose’s questions. Watch and Cringe, Anaheim!
By the way, what Trevor doesn’t know would totally not fit in the ARTIC station, but for one thing all the taxes we get from the Disneyland Resort go NOT to “police, parks, bla bla bla” but directly to paying off that $510 million bond we took out for them. So it’s complicated, but we sure don’t get much from Disney, and Mickey and Friends is a subsidy.
While writing this story, I just heard that Disney may have finally made an offer to their workers that could be acceptable.
That would be good. But meanwhile, WE NEED A GATE TAX. Like Orlando has. Especially now after Covid and so much Anaheim government irresponsibility. This Council will never help, so it’ll have to be a popular referendum, to go on the Nov. 2022 ballot. LET’S DO IT, ANAHEIM!
Now you’d think, with all that money and political brainpower, Disney could at least find a couple of tools with some subtlety.
One can’t help but wonder who lets amateur hour continue.
It’s amazing what sort of sub-mediocrity gets by in OC.
Good show. I luv how Hide-and-Seek gets all flusterated with his dandruff up ‘n everything and Moreno never once raises his voice. Hairball looked like he had Todd Spitzer-brand fire ants in his britches.
Yeah it’s like that at a lot of meetings on various issues. It’s great comedy. I think Jose feeds off Harry’s rage and, perhaps a little passive-aggressively, just gets more patient, reasonable and insistent, with that little crocodile smile.
I’m sure that Ryan or Zenger could reduce this down to a pithy bumper-sticker size, but the Disney Council’s literal motto for the past decade has been “We must ensure that our major industries have enough money to pay the taxes that we refuse to collect from them.”
Ported over from Facebook (edited only to retain clear presentation lost6 in such transfers and to fix some typos):
Duane Roberts
I haven’t had an opportunity to read Superior Court Judge William Claster’s ruling, so I don’t know exactly what it says. But you argue he “ruled in favor of Disney” because of “a very narrow (even CRAMPED) definition of ‘subsidy’ that limits it to literal ‘tax rebates.'”
But my guess is Judge Claster most likely based his ruling on the text of Measure L itself because if you read it very carefully it has the “very narrow (even CRAMPED) definition of ‘subsidy’ that limits it to literal ‘tax rebates'” that you seem to claim he made up.
This is Measure L’s definition of a “City Subsidy”:
See the following link for the full text:
https://www.anaheim.net/DocumentCenter/View/21954/2018-Initiative-Measure-Text
Though I don’t disagree with the assertion issuing municipal bonds to help pay for the construction of a $90 million parking garage next to The Walt Disney Company’s properties is a form of “subsidy,” the financing mechanisms here are completely different.
Measure L does not apply because the parking garage was not paid for through a scheme where there was a “rebate of transient occupancy tax, sales tax, entertainment tax, property tax or other taxes, presently or in the future, matured or unmatured. ”
Fred Sigala Jr.
Duane Roberts: My understanding is the city told voters they’d be voting for a bond for neighborhood improvements then took a large portion of that bond money and gave it to Disney to build the structure. Revenue from said structure (how much?) which should go to the city, is instead being used to repay the bond. Once repaid, the city will then sign over ownership [of] the structure to Disney. Clearly the wording of measure L failed to include what any reasonable person can see should still count as a subsidy even though it’s more of a roundabout giveaway. Deceptively layered agreements difficult to understand which result in our tax dollars paying for a parking structure they will own sounds like the city subsidizing Disney to me. I’d like to see a new measure on the ballot with the proper wording asap.
Greg Diamond
My interest at this point is whether the arrangement will achieve subsidy status as of when the parking garage is turned over to Disney.
Duane, do you have any idea who drafted the language of Measure L? Was it “designed to fail”?
Vince Rebeccca Kovacs
Greg Diamond: Ya know … for those of us on threads like this it’s ‘always’ nice to get a little history on the bond measure …
#grateful
Vern Patrick Nelson
All of these comments would be good on the blog story itself.
And so here they are!
Duane replied to me as follows:
And here was my reply to him:
Duane: “It should be noted several hotels in Anaheim have to comply with Measure L and are already paying wages at the levels it stipulates. They’ve learned to deal with it and are still highly profitable businesses…”
Yeah, during the Measure L fight I ran into Gardenwalk Giveaway beneficiary Bill O’Connell and asked him what he thought. He said something like, “Whatever the people decide, we can handle it if we have to.” (I know he contributed to the fight against it, but he was stoic. Didn’t weasel out like Disney.)
Finally watched the video. At the end, what “tax revenue” (that will supposedly increase after the parking structure is deeded over to Disney) is Trevor talking about?
Disney is not paying property tax revenue on the garage because the city owns it. (That is a main point of the city owning it!) Is he talking about TOT taxes? Sales taxes? The portion of employee income taxes that somehow make their way back to Anaheim? What does he mean? I doubt that his claim applies to any of them.
Like I wrote. What he doesn’t know would overflow ARTIC. Not that he’s aware of the vastness of his ignorance.
Well, *something* has to fill ARTIC! Is it even in use these days? I never hear people talking about using it, but news travels slowly to the frozen north.
Tom Tait hated it when I’d say this, but I still think that its true and best calling is as a homeless shelter.