Disney’s’ Parks and Resorts division accounted for 35% of the entertainment giant’s total revenues in fiscal 2018 and was second only to the Media Networks segment.
Disneyland, with about 30,000 employees, is the biggest employer in Orange County — a Southern California area with about 3.2 million people. The company expects an increase of 1,400 employees as a direct result of its investment in Galaxy’s Edge, which includes several attractions with interactive features.
“Disneyland is like having a rich uncle who lives right down the road,” said Steve Jones, mayor of the neighboring City of Garden Grove. “Twenty-four million visitors pass through the Anaheim resort area each year creating externalities that benefit our city enormously.”
However, Disneyland’s relationship with Anaheim — a city of more than 350,000 people — grew strained just a few years ago when some elected city officials suggested they regretted corporate subsidies or breaks from future taxes, which The Los Angeles Times estimated back in 2017 had totaled over decades more than $1 billion (a figure Disney officials have called “completely inaccurate”). Last October, Disney canceled a planned luxury hotel project near Disneyland after a tax rebate was pulled by the city that reportedly could have saved the company more than $250 million.
“Good friends will not always agree; however, the current level of animus is unprecedented and counterproductive,” Disneyland Resort President Josh D’Amaro wrote in August 2018 to Anaheim’s mayor and entire City Council. In the letter, he also asked the city to terminate a tax reimbursement agreement that had “become a flashpoint for controversy and dissention [sic] in our community.”
Anaheim’s Lyster said the relationship with the 63-year-old theme park is back on good terms. “Both sides said we will kind of hit the ‘reset’ button, and that certainly has happened.”
from Viral News Reports http://bit.ly/2G1tgSe
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