‘That’s Not Gonna Fly’: DeSantis Moves To Nullify Disney Efforts To Dodge State Oversight

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Monday that the state government will introduce a bill to reverse the Walt Disney Co. ‘ s agreement to avoid state supervision of its parks, escalating the conflict between one of the largest employers in the region and the probable presidential candidate.

DeSantis said the legislature would take steps to nullify a development agreement Disney struck with outgoing members of the oversight board that ties the hands of DeSantis‘ appointees.

DeSantis claimed that” they believed they had come up with some sort of development agreement that would create everything we did void.” That won’t sail, I assure you.

The Florida governor started focusing on Disney a year ago after the company’s’s then-Ciel Executive Bob Chapek spoke out against the Parental Rights in Education Act, also known as the” Don’t say gay” law, which would restrict discussion of sexuality and gender identity in Florida elementary school classrooms.

DeSantis and the Florida legislature have been working to eliminate the virtual autonomy the company enjoyed over Walt Disney World for more than 50 years. Disney employs some 75,000 people in the state.

DeSantis‘ battle against “woke Disney” has figured in speeches, as he travels around the country ahead of an anticipated 2024 presidential bid.

A bill that was approved by Florida legislators in February gave DeSantis effective control over a table that is in charge of managing provincial expertise and development in the Walt Disney World resort-encompassing special area in central Florida.

Bob Iger, the current CEO of Disney, referred to the action as a retaliation,” anti-business ,” and” Anti-Florida.”

Disney pushed through modifications to the unique tax district understanding that restrict the board’s’s actions for years prior to being taken over by DeSantis appointees.

The understanding had been reached three weeks prior to DeSantis signing legislation granting the state authority over the city, according to a lawyer for the previously established Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, who last month described it as” disturbing.”

On March 29, attorney Daniel Langley remarked,” I’ve’ve never seen anything like this.” The timing, circumstances, and terms of the( development agreement ) demonstrated that the goal was to bind this board’s’s hands and those of future boards in order to get around this district.

The agreement firmly establishes a 10-year comprehensive system that was adopted on July 15, 2022, and which acts as an outline to direct future expansion. Disney has the choice to add a second main issue garden, two smaller parks, 1 million square feet of retail space, and roughly 14,000 hotel rooms.

Additionally, it guarantees that upcoming boards will uphold a pledge to$ 527 million in planned capital improvements to support Walt Disney World’s’s expansion over the following ten years.

A legal clause used in contracts to extend a right in eternity would remain in effect until 21 days after the passing of the last survivor of King Charles III, King of England’s’s posterity.

( Reporting from Los Angeles by Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine, with Bill Berkrot’s’s editing )