Florida lawmakers have voted to strip Disney of its special status as a self-governing area as the war between Governor Ron DeSantis and the company rumbled on.
The Republican-led Senate decided to end the Reedy Creek Improvement District, meaning the firm will no longer be able operate as a self-contained government.
They backed the measure by 23-16 and it will go to the state House before being passed to the governor – with it potentially coming into effect on June 1, 2023.
It rips up the 55-year-old deal that allowed Disney to regulate land, enforce building codes and treat wastewater – and could cost it millions in lost local taxes.
But it could see two Florida counties saddled with $1billion of debt currently owed by Walt Disney World.
Orange and Osceola counties may end up shouldering the huge sum amid the toxic fallout between DeSantis and the company over his ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill.
It comes amid claims the panicked firm could turn back to former CEO Bob Iger to steady the ship that has become increasingly under Bob Chapek.
Today’s update is the latest escalation in the ongoing war between DeSantis and Disney, which started when its bosses opposed his so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill.
The firm has come out strongly against the document, which forbids discussing homosexuality or transgender issues for children from kindergarten to third grade.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addresses a joint session of a legislative session, Jan. 11, 2022. On April 19, he asked the Legislature to repeal a law allowing Walt Disney World to operate a private government over its properties
Democrats failed to delay the passage of a GOP-sponsored bill yesterday that sought to dissolve six special districts in Florida.
Those districts included the Reedy Creek Improvement District, in which Walt Disney World in Orlando sits.
‘Yes, they will be considering the congressional map, but they also will be considering termination of all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968 — and that includes the Reedy Creek Improvement District,’ DeSantis said at a press conference.
The Reedy Creek Improvement District, a semi-private, special-purpose government, is controlled by Disney and spans 39 square miles.
It was created in 1967 when the then-Florida Republican Governor Claude Kirk signed into law the Reedy Creek Improvement Act.
If the 1967 is repealed by GOP lawmakers, Disney World’s property will fall under the control of Orange and Osceola counties.
DeSantis had only previously hinted he was ‘receptive’ to changing the district, before making the announcement that dramatically heated up in his war with Disney.
Senate Minority Leader Gary Farmer, D-Fort Lauderdale, said the bill was not fiscally sound and pointed out that other counties would be in the same boat for the five other districts the state was dissolving, and those counties would not have the revenue that Orange and Osceola counties did.
‘So this is not supposition, this is not conjecture, this is Florida law that says those 1.7 million people are going to have to pick up this bill,’ Farmer added.
The Reedy Creek Improvement District is a private government controlled by Disney World and set up by the state legislature in 1967 that allows it to provide government services such as zoning, fire protection, utilities and infrastructure.
The Reedy Creek Improvement District is a private government controlled by Disney World that allows it to provide services such as zoning, fire protection, utilities and infrastructure
The area is about 38 square miles (100 square kilometers) and includes two cities and land in Orange and Osceola counties, in central Florida.
The creation of the district in Florida was a crucial element in the company’s plans to build near Orlando in the 1960s.
It comes amid claims Disney could turn to former CEO Iger amid turmoil under Chapek.
An insider told the New York Post: ‘I don’t think this would have happened under Iger.
‘Disney now finds itself in the middle of a culture war and it shouldn’t have been there.’
Another Hollywood executive added: ‘Chapek’s contract is up in a year and a half. I’d be worried.’
Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, is pictured on March 28 signing the so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill
Employees of Disney in California are seen demonstrating against the bill on March 22
Disney 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.
Under that agreement, Disney runs the district as the entertainment juggernaut were a local government, including collecting taxes and guaranteeing essential public services such as garbage collection and water treatment.
The district is governed a Board of Supervisors selected by its 19 landowners, the biggest and most influential of them being Disney World.
It also has the authority to tax the land and use the revenue to provide essential public services and operate and maintain all public roads and bridges.
Such private governments are common in Florida, which has more than 600 community development districts managing and infrastructure.
If the 1967 is repealed by GOP lawmakers, Disney World’s property will fall under the control of Orange and Osceola counties.
The dispute between Disney and DeSantis began after DeSantis in early March signed into law a bill that bans lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in elementary schools, the latest effort by Republicans in the United States to reshape education policy along conservative lines.
Opponents and LGBTQ rights activists lobbied against what they call the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, which will affect kids in kindergarten through third grade, when they are eight or nine years old.
Disney is one of Florida’s biggest private employers: Last year, the company said it had more than 60,000 workers in the state. LGBTQ advocates who work for the company criticized CEO Bob Chapek for what they said was his slow response speaking out against the bill. Some walked off the job in protest.
Chapek then slammed the law and halted all of Disney’s political donations in Florida — a move that came after weeks of outcry, particularly among LGBTQ staff, over the company not taking a public stand against the legislation.
‘Florida’s HB 1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law,’ Chapek said after DeSantis signed the bill.
The governor responded by calling Disney’s attitude ‘dishonest’ and announcing in late March that his administration could withdraw the company’s special privileges.