LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (WFLA) — Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke at the Reedy Creek Administration Building in Lake Buena Vista Monday to announce the next move his administration plans to pursue in an ongoing battle against The Walt Disney Company.
Earlier this year, DeSantis stripped Disney’s control over its special taxing district, the Reedy Creek Improvement District, and appointed a new board to oversee it. But Disney quietly undermined the move, snatching away the new board’s powers and transferring them to Disney for the next 30 years.
During the afternoon press conference, DeSantis said, “That’s not going to fly.”
“They negotiated with themselves to give themselves the ability to maintain their self-governing status. Now that’s in direct defiance of the will of the people of Florida,” he said. “The agreements themselves have a plethora of legal infirmities that render them void anyways.”
“All agreements signed between Disney and the District were appropriate, and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law,” wrote a Disney spokesperson in a statement.
If the move is not found to be unlawful, the governor pointed to Chapter 163 Sec. 3241 of Florida Statutes, which provides the legislature with the authority to revoke development agreements “with this exact type of agreements.”
“There is a bill that will be put out in the Florida legislature that will make sure that the agreements purported to be entered into by Disney are revoked and the people’s will is established and upheld,” the governor said. “We want to make sure that Disney lives under the same rules as everybody else.”
“We weren’t planning on having to come back,” DeSantis added. “We are going to have to keep fighting back and we will continue to do it because there is a larger principle at stake. We are a government of laws, not a government of individual men, or even a government of woke corporations based in California.”
The efforts targeting Disney come about one year after the company spoke out against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Bill, which later became law. The measure limits classroom discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation.
“The policy that DeSantis is proposing are punitive in nature and targeting one specific corporation for expressing their first amendment rights,” said Rep. Anna Eskamani (D – Orange County). “Governor Ron DeSantis is clearly conducting a witch hunt.”
The governor also said he has directed state agencies to increase oversight over Disney.
“They exempted the monorail from any safety standards or inspections so they’re gonna go and make sure that the monorail is subject to oversight just like everything else would be in the state of Florida,” said the governor.
Theme parks, including Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and Legoland, are exempt from state ride safety inspections.
They must file quarterly reports of any serious ride-related injuries.
Disney is as a leader in safety and continues to develop procedures and best practices that are leveraged across the industry, the company says.
The governor said a bill in the works by the legislature would eliminate the ride safety inspection exemption for any theme parks with “special districts,” a move that appears to target Disney.
“We have in Florida law today, a policy where if a company has more than 1,000 employees and their own inspectors, they self-regulate. That is wrong. Every theme park should be inspected by FDACS. What Governor DeSantis is doing is trying to target one company because they made him mad,” said Rep. Eskamani.
The governor expects a bill on nullifying the Disney/Reedy Creek deal to be filed next week.
On Wednesday, the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board, formerly the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID), meets and is expected to discuss ways to revoke the deal on its own.
