{"id":57362,"date":"2023-02-27T15:30:24","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T20:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=57362"},"modified":"2023-02-27T15:30:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T20:30:30","slug":"desantis-now-controls-disney-worlds-special-district-heres-what-that-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2023\/02\/desantis-now-controls-disney-worlds-special-district-heres-what-that-means\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis Now Controls Disney World\u2019s Special District\u2014Here\u2019s What That Means "},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed legislation Monday that overhauls the special district that oversees Walt Disney World by giving the governor power to appoint its board, saying he was getting rid of Disney\u2019s \u201ccorporate kingdom,\u201d following a long-running battle between DeSantis and Disney after the media giant criticized Florida\u2019s Parental Rights in Education law, known as the \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay\u201d bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walt Disney World is governed by the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which functions like a county government and takes care of things like roads, construction permits, fire services, building codes, water and waste collection, among other infrastructure concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida lawmakers passed legislation<\/a> that would dissolve Reedy Creek as of June 1 as a way to punish Disney for opposing<\/a> the \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay\u201d law, but after that raised concerns that getting rid of the district would burden local taxpayers<\/a>, the legislature backtracked on its plan, passing legislation<\/a> earlier in February that overhauls the district instead of getting rid of it entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it previously stood, Reedy Creek is independent from Disney, but the company wields large power over its board, which is elected by the district\u2019s landowners: Disney, which owns two thirds of the district\u2019s land, and a small number of local residents and affiliates who the company has hand-picked to reside there, according<\/a> to the Orlando Sentinel<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The legislation, which took effect upon being signed Monday, renames Reedy Creek as the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and completely throws out its board, which will now instead be made up of five officials who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate, and cannot have worked for a company that owns a theme park within the last three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board will have broad control over the district, including \u201chav[ing] exclusive jurisdiction and control\u201d over infrastructure services, control over what gets constructed or demolished in the district, building regulations, hiring people who work for the district, imposing taxes and entering into deals with private contractors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law does not have any impact on Reedy Creek\u2019s existing bonds and debts, which experts had<\/a> warned<\/a> could be pushed on to taxpayers in the surrounding Florida counties if the special district was dissolved entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

25,000. That\u2019s how many acres Reedy Creek takes up in central Florida, according<\/a> to the special district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disney has not yet responded to DeSantis signing the bill into law, but the company has previously said it would not fight the governor\u2019s takeover of Reedy Creek. \u201cFor more than 50 years, the Reedy Creek Improvement District has operated at the highest standards, and we appreciate all that the District has done to help our destination grow and become one of the largest economic contributors and employers in the state,\u201d Walt Disney World President Jeff Vahle said in a statement. \u201cWe are focused on the future and are ready to work within this new framework.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new law also takes away previous allowances for Reedy Creek that Republican critics believed went too far, such as the power to establish a nuclear power plant or airport on Walt Disney World property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill\u2019s provisions took effect Monday, but the legislation allows the district to keep doing business as Reedy Creek for up to two years during the transition. Current board members\u2019 terms will end as soon as the law takes effect, and DeSantis said he would formally appoint their replacements later in the day on Monday, naming five allies he plans to appoint including Florida businessmen, DeSantis donors<\/a> and a member of the school board in Sarasota, Florida. That board will meet for the first time next week, DeSantis said Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the special district\u2019s likely overhaul will mean for Disney and people who travel to Walt Disney World. Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, told<\/a> Fox 35 he believes the impact will largely depend on DeSantis\u2019 appointees. Board members would have the power to take actions like rejecting theme park construction proposals if they wanted to, which could affect guests\u2019 experiences. Jewett noted the arrangement will likely make Disney much more beholden to DeSantis when he holds the fate of their business in his hands, and the board being made up of his appointees puts \u201csome pressure on Disney not to criticize Gov. DeSantis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State Rep. Anna Eskamani (D), who represents the area around Walt Disney World, told<\/a> Fox 35 after the bill was introduced she believes the legislation is a \u201ccomplete power grab\u201d by DeSantis \u201cto award his friends these positions of authority, which can then lead to contracts being pushed toward his friends as well.\u201d Eskamani introduced an amendment<\/a> to the bill that would rename the district \u201cFlorida’s Attempt to Silence Critical and Independent Speech and Thought\u201d (FASCIST), which did not pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reedy Creek was first created by the Florida government in 1967, when Walt Disney World was being developed ahead of its opening in 1971. The district had operated largely without controversy until last year when Florida enacted<\/a> the \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay\u201d law, which broadly restricts the discussion of LGBTQ topics in schools. Disney, which had previously tried to stay out of the political controversy around the legislation, ultimately came out against it, saying in a statement<\/a> after the law was enacted that it \u201cshould never\u201d have been passed or enacted, and that its \u201cgoal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts.\u201d That set off DeSantis and Florida Republicans, who responded by taking aim at Reedy Creek and ultimately enacting<\/a> legislation to dissolve it in April. Before the new bill was introduced, it hadn\u2019t been clear what the logistics of getting rid of Reedy Creek would actually be, however, particularly after concerns were raised over the tax burden it could cause. The Financial Times<\/a> reported in December that lawmakers were planning to backtrack on the plan to get rid of the special district, citing the company\u2019s leadership change as Bob Iger replaced Bob Chapek as CEO, but DeSantis\u2019 office denied<\/a> that report, saying the governor \u201cdoes not make U-turns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis\u2019 new effort to hand-pick the special district board is part of a broader effort by the GOP governor and potential 2024 candidate to reshape state institutions he believes are opposed to his policies. The governor has also come under fire for recently replacing<\/a> the entire board at the New College of Florida, a progressive state-run liberal arts college that DeSantis\u2019 administration is now trying to remake to be more Christian and conservative. DeSantis has also thrown his weight behind school board candidates<\/a> in an effort to appoint officials who are friendlier to his administration and more broadly<\/a> enacted policies aimed at eradicating diversity efforts and so-called wokeness from school curriculums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed legislation Monday that overhauls the special district that oversees Walt Disney World by giving the governor power to appoint its board, saying he was… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":50179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[2190],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57362"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57363,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57362\/revisions\/57363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}