… and more on today’s CrossPolitic Daily News Brief. This is Toby Sumpter. Today is Tuesday, April 26, 2022. 
 
French President Emmanuel Macron won re-election to a second term on Sunday, beating far-right challenger Marine Le Pen. 
 
https://twitter.com/SBSNews/status/1518436382946914304?s=20&t=JmyST1xPkVhXKkXGViCwCA
 
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The election runoff was a rematch of their 2017 race, when the center-right Macron ran as a fresh face and trounced Le Pen 66.1 percent to 33.9 percent. Sunday's vote was closer but still decisive, with Macron, now running with a clear record, winning 58.5 percent to 41.5 percent. Biden said he felt good about the election, and was looking forward to talking to Macron Monday.
 
https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1518611872139857921?s=20&t=9oZvYhXWZjIpSuf9IksCvw
 
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Macron said his re-election was a win for "a more independent France and a stronger Europe," although he called it his duty to "respond effectively" to "the anger that has been expressed" in the campaign. Le Pen conceded defeat but said French voters showed they wanted a "strong counter power" to Macron.
 
Is DeSantis Really Fighting or Just Shadow Boxing?
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill last Friday that revokes a special tax district which essentially gave Disney governing powers on its theme park land at Orlando. The new law was apparently an act of retribution for Disney's belated opposition to the controversial "Don't Say Gay" law approved just a few weeks earlier by the state's GOP-led legislature. 
 
"You're a corporation based in Burbank, California, and you're gonna marshal your economic might to attack the parents of my state," DeSantis said before signing the anti-Disney law. "We view that as a provocation, and we're going to fight back against that."
 
The question is whether this commitment to "fighting back" probably means hurting Florida taxpayers. It's a complicated story, but the gist appears to be that revoking Disney's tax district essentially puts area residents on the hook for more than $1 billion in bonds the company used to pay for things like water service and new roads on its land. Local homeowners could see their taxes jump by 20 percent as a result – to the tune of 163 million per year. 
 
Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph, a Democrat and the former ranking member of the Florida House finance and tax committee, claims that if Reedy Creek ceases to exist, the residents of his county and neighboring Osceola will have to take on its tens of millions in bond payments and operational expenses currently paid by Disney, but will be left without the ability to collect revenue because the taxing authority will no longer exist.
 
Randolph told FOX Business that could mean an increase in property taxes of 25% if Orange County has to absorb all of it. 
 
Florida state Rep. Randy Fine, the Republican who sponsored the legislation, told FOX Business that that argument is "just a scare tactic used by woke politicians."
 
Fine acknowledges that the local entities where Reedy Creek lies will pick up the Reedy Creek's debt once the district is dissolved, but says those local governments can create Municipal Service Taxing Units (MSTU) that would also "pick up the revenue that would be going to pay for the debt." He insists that "There's no impact to taxpayers."
 
Randolph argues that according to Florida statute, the local governments cannot impose MSTUs on Reedy Creek because it is an independent tax district. Therefore, he says, when that incorporated municipality dissolves, Disneywould have no obligation to pay the $163 million each year. 
Fine says that's why the service taxing units are municipal, and therefore not something handled by the state. "Scott Randolph's job is to open envelopes and to take out checks," the lawmaker told FOX Business. "He probably should stick to that. He doesn't set tax policy."
In reply, Randolph said, "Randy Fine doesn't understand basic math."
 
Raldolph