Report: Walt Disney Co. In Line For $570M In Tax Breaks For New Florida Campus

ORLANDO (CBSMiami/AP) -- The Walt Disney Co. could soon be enjoying a major tax break for building a new facility in Florida.

Disney stands to benefit from more than a half billion dollars in tax breaks for building a new regional campus in central Florida.

The campus promises to employ at least 2,000 professional employees who will be relocating from Southern California to work in digital technology, finance and product development.

Documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel show the company could claim more than $570 million in tax breaks over 20 years for the project. That would be among the largest in Florida history for a single corporation.

The documents show Disney's capital investment for the project could be as much as $864 million.

Disney is eligible for the money under the state's Capital Investment Tax Credit program, for which it was approved in February 2020, Christina Pushaw, press secretary for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, told the newspaper.

In a statement to the Sentinel, Disney said the company was utilizing the incentive program offered by the state and "making a sizable investment in this community where we have a long-standing presence and commitment."

But Greg LeRoy, executive director of a nonpartisan research center on incentives, Good Jobs First, called the incentives "worse than a zero-sum game."

"We call this interstate job fraud," LeRoy said. "At the end of the day, you've also got less revenue available for public services."

Under Florida's Capital Investment Tax Credit program, companies can reduce their corporate income tax by receiving an annual credit based on eligible capital costs from certain projects. Those costs include acquisition, construction, installation and equipping the project.

The state has dangled hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives to other companies in recent years.

Universal Orlando is in line for nearly $350 million in state tax breaks to build a new headquarters for a division that designs its theme parks, rides and hotels.

In 2006, biotech company Sanford Burnham received $300 million in state and local taxes to move to Orlando but had to return some of the funds for failing to meet the requirements in its original incentive agreement. Three years earlier, the Scripps Research Institute got $600 million in state and local tax money to set up in Palm Beach County.

(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)