Bless Disney’s little heart. The Walt Disney Corporation keeps trying to overrule Sunshine State voters, but like David facing Goliath, Florida has smooth stones and a heck of an accurate slingshot at its disposal.
We learned at the end of March that the outgoing Reedy Creek Improvement District Board (RCID), a quasi-governmental body that was set up by the state in the 1960s, when Walt Disney, Roy Disney, and the Imagineers built Walt Disney World. The board had secretly passed a series of covenants, and agreements for development, which were intended to make the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board (CFTOD) powerless.
The CFTOD is the state’s answer to Disney’s woke activism within the Sunshine State. The state legislature revoked the RCID and Disney’s autonomy. It replaced it with CFTOD. A board that serves at the Governor’s behest.
Disney, as I said at the time forgot who they were messing with. The state hired a team to comb over these agreements and find any weaknesses that could be exploited. And the governor’s staff filed a FOIA for all of the covert activities the RCID board engaged in. DeSantis also asked for an investigation of the board’s activities.
But wait, there’s more!
DeSantis, along with a group of state legislators, held a press event on Monday in the RCID administration building. Announcing plans to reassert authority and undo former district board shenanigans.
DeSantis reiterated his fight against RCID. He said that legislators decided last year that it was no longer in Florida’s best interests for one corporation to have its own government.
“My mantra was that Disney would not have its own government for Central Florida.” He continued, “They’re going live under the same law as everyone else, pay their fair amount of taxes, and honor the debts they’ve accrued over the years.”
DeSantis also announced that the CFTOD board will meet this week to discuss revoking the RCID’s agreements, citing the “plethora of legal infirmities” within them. He added that, if the board can’t simply revoke the RCID’s actions, the legislature has “the authority to revoke development agreements in this exact type of instance. And so I’ve worked with both leaders of the House and Senate. 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 is upheld.”
The state is also considering bills that would put Walt Disney World’s transportation infrastructure and resorts under its authority. The state is also considering moving Walt Disney World utilities out of the district and under private control to “operate the park more efficiently.”
The governor joked that he would build a prison on the land controlled by RCID.
At a press conference, Rep. Carolina Amesty, R-Windermere, said: “Let this be known throughout this great nation, that in the free state Florida, ‘We the People’ are in charge. Not woke corporations.” “We the People” “pushed far-left stories and lies about our wonderful state,” claimed Rep. Amnesty.
Florida continues to warn Disney that Florida will not bow down to the extreme left and their corporate allies. This fight is not over.
