{"id":36439,"date":"2025-11-03T21:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T21:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/36439\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T21:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T21:01:10","slug":"disney-flexes-and-anaheim-backs-down-on-proposed-gate-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/36439\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Flexes and Anaheim Backs Down on Proposed Gate Tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\"A\t\t<\/p>\n

Credit: Steven Miller, Flickr<\/p>\n

In September, Anaheim City Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava urged her colleagues on the council to consider a \u201cgate tax\u201d<\/a> to help the city\u2019s finances. However, just hours before the meeting was set to debate the issue, Rubalcava reached out to her fellow council members and asked that the issue be tabled until the October meeting.<\/p>\n

\"ACredit: Disney Scoop Guy screenshot X <\/p>\n

Now, the October meeting has come and gone, and Disney has successfully squashed the gate tax. At its October meeting, the Anaheim City Council voted not to put the gate tax to a voter referendum; instead, the Council chose to postpone further discussion on the issue until \u201canother meeting\u201d to be held to discuss other revenue-generating possibilities. <\/p>\n

The city of Anaheim is facing a $63 million budget shortfall for this upcoming fiscal year. Rather than institute a three percent gate tax on entertainment and theme park venues, the city is turning to bonds and the sale of a parking garage to make up the lost revenue. <\/p>\n

\"A\"ACredit: Disney<\/p>\n

The city estimated that a three percent tax on Disneyland gate <\/a>revenues would have generated $83 million to $134 million annually for the city. However, that issue appears to be mute for the time being. <\/p>\n

Disney is Anaheim\u2019s largest employer and a significant contributor to the local economy through taxes. Disney also contributes large sums to all of the politicians on the Anaheim City Council and the mayor of Anaheim. <\/p>\n

\"Old\"OldCredit: Anna Fox (HarshLight), Flickr<\/p>\n

To help defeat the measure, Mayor Ashleigh Aitken wrote an Op-Ed praising Disneyland\u2019s contribution<\/a> to the city and urging the Council not to institute a gate tax. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can keep trying to work with our partners and work with our resort community, and work with our business leaders to attract more investment, or we can bleed them dry,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d rather look at us tightening our belts than doing something that, to me, is just a bit shortsighted and not in the city\u2019s best interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city is expected to receive a tax boost next year when it pays off its 1996 bond obligations. That money was used to help Disney expand and eventually begin construction on Disney\u2019s California Adventure. <\/p>\n

\"Disneyland\"DisneylandCredit: Disney<\/p>\n

Despite not commenting on the gate tax, Disney has opposed any tax on its tickets. In 2022, council member Jose Moreno pushed for a two percent\u00a0tax on Disneyland tickets<\/a>\u00a0and parking. Estimates suggested at the time that a two percent tax would have generated between $55 million and $80 million for the city.<\/p>\n

For now, a gate tax on Disneyland is dead, but it could come back at any time, unless Disney gets its way. <\/p>\n

Do you think theme parks should charge a gate tax to help pay for local infrastructure? Let us know in the comments. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Steven Miller, Flickr In September, Anaheim City Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava urged her colleagues on the council to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,25568,25569],"class_list":["post-36439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-disney-news","tag-disneyland-resort-california"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}