Disney settled six years of property tax lawsuits over Magic Kingdom’s monorail resorts. The deals cut the Grand Floridian and Polynesian values by more than $767 million.
Disney just closed out a property tax fight that’s been running since 2016.
It’s a running joke that every year Disney will fight paying assessed property taxes to try and get millions knocked off.
Settlements in Orange County court cut the official values of two Magic Kingdom monorail resorts by more than $767 million combined. That’s according to BlogMickey, which went through the court filings on Friday, Oct. 30. Circuit Judge Margaret H. Schreiber signed all six judgments this week.
The resorts in question are Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort and Disney’s Contemporary Resort. The Grand Floridian took the biggest cut by far. The Contemporary didn’t get one at all.
What did the Disney property tax settlement change?
It lowered the “just value” on two of the three resorts for tax years 2015 through 2020. Just value is Florida’s term for a property’s market value, and it’s what the county property appraiser sets each year.
Disney had argued those values were too high. The settlements agree, at least partly.
Grand Floridian: The appraiser’s values for the six years added up to about $3 billion. The settled values add up to about $2.3 billion. That’s a cut of about $693.5 million, or 23%.
Polynesian: About $1.06 billion dropped to about $984.4 million over the same six years. That’s about $74.1 million, roughly 7% each year.
Contemporary: No change. BlogMickey reports its values “stay exactly as the appraiser set them.”
The biggest single-year drop was the Grand Floridian in 2016. Its value fell from about $554.5 million to about $371.5 million.
How many Disney tax lawsuits ended this week?
Eleven, by BlogMickey’s count. That’s the six settled judgments plus five other Disney tax cases that were dismissed the same week.
Those five were dismissed with prejudice. That means Disney can’t file them again. Case numbers show they were filed between 2022 and 2024, but the dismissal orders don’t say which properties or tax years they covered. Each side pays its own legal fees.
Disney filed one lawsuit per tax year on the monorail resorts. The first came in June 2016, for tax year 2015, and the last in June 2021, for tax year 2020.
Does Disney get a big refund now?
Don’t expect anything close to $767 million.
Disney already paid its tax bills in full on these properties. That’s how these fights work: Disney pays first, then sues. So the county already has the money.
What happens next is paperwork. BlogMickey reports the property appraiser’s office has 30 days to issue corrected certificates. Then the tax collector and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, the board that replaced Reedy Creek, recalculate what Disney owed.
Here’s the catch. BlogMickey says each judgment leaves the “assessed value” unchanged, and the tax bill builds on assessed value. In plain English, a lower market value doesn’t automatically mean a smaller bill. The final dollar amounts may never be made public, and BlogMickey points to county refund records as the best place to look later.
Who is Disney suing over property taxes?
The Orange County Property Appraiser. That’s Amy Mercado, who took office in January 2021 after beating incumbent Rick Singh in the 2020 Democratic primary. Singh held the job when Disney filed most of these suits.
This isn’t Disney’s only tax case, either. In June 2026, judgments cut values at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, Wilderness Lodge and BoardWalk. BlogMickey put that total at more than $215 million. In July 2026, Disney’s Art of Animation Resort saw its value trimmed by about 3%.
And Disney is still suing over newer tax years. In December 2025, ClickOrlando reported Disney had filed roughly a dozen suits over its 2025 tax bills. Those suits say some values were above market value and that “certain intangible property” was counted in violation of state law.
Why do these Disney tax fights matter to locals?
Property taxes pay for schools and local services. Orange County Public Schools set aside $119 million for possible refunds, according to BlogMickey.
Cast member unions and the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association have pushed Disney to drop the suits. Disney hadn’t commented on this week’s settlements in any report we found, and neither had Mercado’s office.
For park guests, nothing changes at check-in. The Grand Floridian still has its Victorian charm and the Polynesian still has its tiki torches. Don’t expect a tax-cut discount on your next stay.
Still, it’s a reminder that even the happiest resorts on Earth come with a tax bill. And Disney will fight over every line of it, even if it means cuts to Cast Members’ kids’ schools.
Article compiled and written by Kambrea Pratt (editor-in-chief), Derek Gibbs (beat editor) and the Pirates & Princesses newsroom. Pirates & Princesses is part of WebReef Media.
Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hat Tips:
BlogMickey (Oct. 30, 2026), the settlement figures, judge, dismissals and refund process
BlogMickey (June and July 2026), the earlier resort tax rulings and union pushback
ClickOrlando (Dec. 2025), Disney’s lawsuits over 2025 tax bills
Florida With Us, the Grand Floridian walkthrough video
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