After Ron DeSantis‘ effective state capture governing board for Disney World properties, its potential competitor in 2024 Donald Trump called Florida The governor’s war with the Walt Disney Company is a “fraud.”
“Ron DeSanctimonius Has Totally Backed His PR-Inspired Fight With Disney” . former president wrote on his platform Truth Social March 12.
“That’s the only reason he went to them in the first place to show Mr. Tough Guy,” he added, arguing that Disney and the Governor “probably worked together to make him look like a fighter.”
After Disney belated public objection to what the opponents called for Florida’s Don’t Say Gay Law. last year, Mr. DeSantis and his administration pounced in the campaign, igniting animosity that grew into a republican one threats to punish Disney’s activities in the state which ultimately led to his rule taking control the decades-old management structure that governs Disney’s sprawling campus.
In February lips signed the bill it amounts to a state takeover of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, now made up of its own appointees.
The former president also told his supporters to read “the great Disney authority” Richard Foglesong, who said Financial Times that the new arrangement “did not actually deprive Disney of special benefits” but that “the composition of the board of directors poses a threat to Disney’s business interests.”
Initial offer would effectively dissolve the county, which acts as the governing body around the Disney World properties in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, which cover 39 square miles and land in Orange and Osceola counties.
The governor and his administration insisted the proposal was simply meant to block what they called “special privileges” for big business in the state, though his fundraising posts at the Reedy Creek death campaign indicated that Disney ‘Woke Up’ Opposition to ‘Don’t Say Gay’.
State lawmakers later balked at the plan over concerns that eliminating the district would burden Florida residents with higher property taxes to pay for Disney’s own infrastructure projects and services.
The district, incorporated in 1967, allows Disney to effectively tax itself to pay for all of its municipal needs, including land use, zoning regulations, water, sewer, emergency services and infrastructure maintenance.
Because Disney is the major landowner in the area, the company is largely responsible for all costs of municipal services that would otherwise fall under the jurisdiction of county and local governments, including the taxpayers who live in them. The agreement significantly eased the burden from neighboring countries and placed it on one of the largest companies in the world.
Instead of dissolving the district, the new arrangement changes the district’s name and allows Mr. DeSantis to appoint all five council members to run it.
The feud between Mr. DeSantis and Disney has also undermined the close relationship between the company and government officials it has supported financially for years.
Disney — a political heavyweight and one of the state’s largest employers — regularly sends lobbyists to Tallahassee and spends tens of thousands of dollars through its many structures to both democratic and republican officials, including the governor.
Orlando Democratic State Rep. Anna Escamani the statement said that “it’s absolutely wild to see a self-proclaimed capitalist like DeSantis celebrate a government takeover of a private board of directors.”
“All this bill does is rename Reedy Creek and allow Governor DeSantis to appoint hostile conservative friends to the new board,” she said. “Disney still retains the same tax breaks, but their First Amendment rights have been limited, and that sends a message to any individual or company that if you don’t [support] whatever the governor wants, you will punish him.”
