George W. Bush may be the best-known liar in the Bush family, but he's far from the only one. Older bro Jeb, governor of Florida, let loose this whopper in response to the Michael Moore controversy: "We don't give tax breaks, that I'm aware of, to Disney."
Really. Apparently Governor Bush is ignorant of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which was created and granted near-autonomous powers by the State of Florida in 1967. This district - essentially under the control of the Disney corporation - is "empowered to levy its own taxes and enact its own building codes and [is exempt] … from filing environmental impact statements or abiding by municipal or regional laws regarding development, zoning, and waste control," according to author Mark Dery. Several chapters of Andrew Ross' book The Celebration Chronicles outline the social and environmental harms heaped upon the Orlando area by the powers granted Disney by the state.
As for "tax breaks," journalist Ed Erickson notes that "because the company can float bonds and tax itself to pay for them, it can then write down some of its capital expenditures as 'local taxes.' After that it’s a matter of deducting those taxes from corporate income tax, rather than amortizing them. It’s legal and it saves them millions every year."
So obviously, Moore is wrong: Disney has nothing to worry about, since Jeb Bush knows nothing about any tax breaks. Since he knows nothing about them, he obviously wouldn't do anything about them to retaliate if Disney distributed Moore's anti-Bush movie.
See? Those damned left-wingers are so paranoid.
(addendum: I was thinking of changing the title to "Disney's Dream Debased," or "Disney's Dream Debased?" or "Disney's Dream: Debased" in homage to The Fall - but I don't really care about Disney's dream at all. Just superfluous referentiality now.)
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