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FLORIDA SENATE PASSES BILL TO END DISNEY SELF-GOVERNMENT

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRREyesterday

1 of 10
FILE - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addresses a joint session of a legislative
session, Jan. 11, 2022, in Tallahassee, Fla. Florida Gov. DeSantis on Tuesday,
April 19, asked the Legislature to repeal a law allowing Walt Disney World to
operate a private government over its properties in the state, the latest salvo
in a feud between the Republican and the media giant. (AP Photo/Phelan M.
Ebenhack, File)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Senate on Wednesday passed a bill to repeal
a law allowing Walt Disney World to operate a private government over its
properties in the state, escalating a feud with the entertainment giant over its
opposition to what critics call the “ Don’t Say Gay ” law.

The proposal could have huge tax implications for Disney, whose series of theme
parks have over the decades transformed Orlando into one of the world’s most
popular tourist destinations. And Democrats have warned that the move could
cause local homeowners to get hit with big tax bills if they have to absorb bond
debt from Disney — although such details are far from clear.

The measures, pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, comes as the governor
battles with Disney after the company’s criticism of a new GOP law barring
instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through
third grade as well as instruction that is not “age appropriate or
developmentally appropriate.”

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The bill would eliminate the Reedy Creek Improvement District, as the Disney
government is known, as well as a handful of other similar districts by June
2023. The measure leaves room for the districts to be reestablished, with a
Republican legislative leader signaling a likely restructuring of a 1967 deal
that lawmakers struck with the company that allows it to provide services such
as zoning, fire protection, utilities and infrastructure.

“By doing it this early, we have until next June or July to this put together,
so we’re actually giving ourselves more time to be thoughtful,” Republican
Senate President Wilton Simpson told reporters after the vote. “I don’t know how
the end will come, but I know that this is a very worthy process that we’re
taking and I think whatever comes out of it will be better than what we have
today.”

Still, the move represents the latest blow in a culture war harnessed by
DeSantis as he runs for reelection and bolsters himself as a potential 2024 GOP
presidential candidate through staunch opposition to liberal policies on race,
gender and abortion.

“If Disney wants to pick a fight, they chose the wrong guy,” DeSantis wrote in a
campaign fundraising email Wednesday. “As governor, I was elected to put the
people of Florida first, and I will not allow a woke corporation based in
California to run our state.”

Democrats, the minority party in the Legislature, have railed against the
proposal as clear retaliation against a company that has been a major economic
driver in the state.

“Let’s call this what it is, it’s the punitive, petulant political payback to a
corporation who dared to say the emperor has no clothes, but if they behave this
next election cycle, maybe we’ll put it back together,” said Sen. Gary M.
Farmer, a Democrat.

Disney did not return an email seeking comment. The company is one of Florida’s
biggest private employers and last year said it had more than 60,000 workers in
the state. It is not immediately clear exactly how Disney or neighboring
governments would be affected if the district was dissolved.

The push to punish Disney came after it announced it would suspend political
donations in the state and said it was committed to supporting organizations
working to oppose the state’s new law limiting sexual orientation or gender
identify instruction in the classroom.

DeSantis and other Republicans have lashed out at Disney and other critics of
the law, arguing that the policy is reasonable and that parents, not teachers,
should be addressing such topics with children.

The creation of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, and the control it gave
Disney over 27,000 acres (11,000 hectares) in Florida, was a crucial element in
the company’s plans to build near Orlando in the 1960s. Company officials said
they needed autonomy to plan a futuristic city along with the theme park. The
city never materialized, however; instead, it morphed into the Epcot theme park.

The Florida House of Representatives is expected to take up the bill Thursday.

___

Associated Press writer Brendan Farrington contributed to this report

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