On Monday, in response to Disney’s attempt to sidestep his oversight board, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he was contemplating building a state prison in the Walt Disney World region.
He promised to increase his campaign against Disney’s Magic Kingdom by having the Republican-controlled state legislature reverse Disney’s legal maneuvers that essentially neutered his new oversight board’s authority over the company.
In his ongoing fight against the theme park metropolis to prevent Mickey, Minnie, and the gang from obtaining their happily ever after, he warned harsher crackdowns in the next week.
DeSantis visited Disney World’s birthplace to rally his troops. He suddenly said that he was really considering constructing jails close to the amusement park, which millions of families visit year with their children.
Disney World and the other amusement parks are located in the Reedy Creek Special Tax Area.
DeSantis mentioned the corporation’s and the old regional board’s property development deal.
All of the raw land is Disney property. As for Florida’s vast area, “You know, quite frankly, I wasn’t even thinking about that land,” DeSantis remarked.
He remarked, “People are like, well, there’s what should we do with this land?” It’s possible that either a brand-new state park or new features for existing parks may be built.
After that, he stated something shocking: “Someone even said, like, maybe you need another state prison.” In other words, “Who knows?”
His actual words were probably more along the lines of “I just think that the possibilities are endless,” but I think you get the point.
When DeSantis formed a new oversight board, he accused the Disney business of trying to outmaneuver him by striking an agreement with the old board, which was dominated by Disney.
They believed they could stifle our efforts by establishing development agreements that would give them all the authority. It just won’t work, and I’m sorry. He said the plan would not work.
He also mentioned that legislation to void the pact was in the works.
He told reporters, “One of the Florida statutes provides the legislature with the authority to revoke development agreements in this exact instance.”
So, I’ve been in touch with the most powerful Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate. His words: “There is a bill that will be put out in the Florida Legislature to make sure that the agreements purported to be entered into by Disney are revoked and the people’s will is established.”
He made a firm proclamation, saying, “We will not have one corporation serving as its own government.”
He referred to the arrangement as a “sham agreement” and claimed that it would be void in law regardless of whether or not lawmakers voided it.
And now he intends to increase his assault on the theme park industry.
While DeSantis takes action at the state level, his new oversight board will consider a resolution this week to stop Disney from exploiting the two towns where its theme parks are situated to maintain control of its franchise.
The governor made the comments on Orlando’s iHeart radio at 2:00 a.m. on Monday. They’re being “incredibly arrogant” by “trying to do an end run around the people of Florida,” he claimed.
This next Wednesday is also the date of the next meeting of the state control board. Keep a watch out, since they are about to roll out a series of steps to make Disney answerable.
The sum of DeSantis’s efforts is an all-out war against Disney’s leadership. Due to his high profile due to his legal fights with Disney, some have speculated that he may announce his presidential run this spring. The culture wars are a significant component of his “war on woke,” and he is now employing this tactic as part of his campaign.
DeSantis has been hinting at possible reforms for weeks.
In a speech he gave earlier this month in Michigan, he made a similar prediction: “additional legislative action will be taken in Tallahassee that will nullify what they tried to do with the 11th hour and then potentially, you know, arm the board with the ability to make sure that this is run appropriately.”
He’s been critical of Disney for weeks, pushing them to “buckle up.” He has proposed a new hotel tax and fees on roads leading to the park as a means of economically punishing Disney.
Disney and DeSantis had a public fight over the governor’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, which forbids instructors from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity with students.
DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Florida legislature ended Disney World’s immunity from state regulation.
DeSantis replaced the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which Disney controlled and used to regulate construction at Disney World, with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board in an effort to limit Disney’s self-governance.
Disney’s management and the outgoing board came to an agreement before the new board entered office that would allow the corporation to continue operating independently of the board, claiming a legal gap based on King Charles III as the justification.
Since Disney currently possesses all the necessary permits for zoning, infrastructure, and air-rights, any future expansion of the theme park will not require approval from DeSantis’ appointed board.
The claim that the governor had been outmanoeuvred was shot down by DeSantis and his supporters. DeSantis has asked the state to look into the behavior of the previous board.
The new board that DeSantis has selected is eager to use its influence to improve Disney World and the neighboring communities.
Disney World is located between Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, where all 53 of Reedy Creek’s citizens make their home. Everyone in town is considered to have some sort of association with the Mouse.
Some believe Disney will utilize its influence with the city councils and mayors of the two municipalities it owns to keep the theme parks under its complete operational control.
Disney Springs is in the neighboring city of Lake Buena Vista, while the rest of the Walt Disney World Resort—including the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom—is in Bay Lake.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, DeSantis’ new Central Florida Tourism Oversight board was given jurisdiction over Disney development in a rewritten resolution.
Complete planning, zoning, land development regulations, environmental protection regulations, and platting and subdivision regulations are all areas in which the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District has authority. This includes within the jurisdictional limits of the Cities of Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake.
The board will discuss the idea at its April 19 meeting.
Disney and Disney Animation Studios are unfazed by the prospect of a protracted and expensive court struggle.
Disney’s CEO Bob Iger attacked DeSantis as “anti-business and anti-Florida” during the company’s annual shareholder meeting earlier this month. According to him, the governor has already begun taking negative action against the business.
Iger expressed his willingness to meet with DeSantis in a Time interview.
When asked if he would meet with Florida’s governor to discuss the matter, he responded, “Of course, I would be glad to do that.”
The Themed Entertainment Association estimates that Disney World will have 36.2 million visitors in 2021, which would result in the employment of more than 75,000 people living in and around Central Florida.
DeSantis avoided answering whether or not he will meet with Disney’s CEO during a radio broadcast on Monday morning.
They must realize that they will be held to the same expectations as everyone else. That’s just how things go in this world. I have no doubt they will fail since they sought to make secret deals shortly before the deadline. He replied, in response to a question about scheduling a meeting, that the very idea that he would do so demonstrates that they still haven’t gotten the message.
In the last quarter of its fiscal year 2022, Disney announced record-breaking earnings of $7.4 billion from its parks, as the company continues to recover from COVID shutdowns.
Once complimentary at the amusement park, parking is now $30, and the Genie+ app is $15. The price of the classic Mickey Mouse ears has increased to $39.99 (2021 price: $29.99).
Disney World used to see about 18 million annual visitors before the epidemic; now, a night at the park’s cheapest hotel, Pop Century, will cost you back about $168. Since 2013 when it cost $95 per night, the resort has increased its prices by more than $70. The increase is greater than 77%.
The price of a park ticket in the 2010s was well over $100, having more than doubled due to inflation.
Reedy Creek is the Florida tax district where Disney World is situated. It was formed to function as a de facto county, replete with its own police and fire departments, infrastructure (roads and buildings), and zoning regulations.
Due to the agreements Disney made with the old board, DeSantis’ new board is mostly limited to routine tasks like road maintenance and infrastructure management.
Until “21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, king of England living as of the date of this declaration,” the terms of the Disney agreement will remain in effect.
Princess Lilibet, age 1, is the ‘last survivor,’ and she is currently based in California.
The so-called “Royal Clause” is a legal loophole sometimes employed by attorneys to circumvent time limits in otherwise unbreakable contracts. Legal services supplier Bricketts believes the British Royal Family was chosen due to their “longer life expectancy” and the relative simplicity with which their family tree may be traced.
This legal strategy is used frequently in the context of trusts and property purchase choices to prevent the indefinite influence of certain laws and to prolong the life of trusts for as long as feasible.
Princess Lilibet, the youngest living descendant of Charles, is just a year old, so if nothing is done, that age difference might last for quite some time.