[R]eedy Creek is $1 billion to $2 billion in debt. One other perk for a corporation playing local government is the ability to raise money through tax-exempt municipal bonds. The bondholders who lent that money expected to be paid back by Reedy Creek, with its superior taxing powers, unstoppable revenue generator (Disney World and its surrounding ecosystem), and autocratic control. In fact, when Florida created Reedy Creek in 1967, the Legislature explicitly promised bond buyers that it would not "limit or alter the rights of the District" to use its tools.

"Is there a conflict between dissolution of Reedy Creek and the state's commitment in 1967? Of course!" said Clayton Gillette, a bond expert at New York University Law School. "It seems quite clear this was intended to avoid exactly what's happened."

Who pays Mickey's billion-dollar debts now? As the Florida attorney Jacob Schumer argued in Bloomberg Tax on Tuesday, there are no easy answers. It's supposed to fall to the two counties that share custody of Disney World, but neither county is ready to put a half-billion dollars on its balance sheet. One county executive said it would be "catastrophic for our budget" to pay for public safety at Disney World. It's not even clear the counties would be capable of raising taxes enough to do so, since Florida limits regular county property tax rates far below what's permitted in Reedy Creek, or how the debt should be apportioned between them. The state isn't even permitted to pay off the bondholders all at once.

All of that is exactly why Wall Street lent money to the Mouse--not to the snowbird homeowners of Orange and Osceola counties.