Monday morning, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis officially signed into law a bill that strips Disney of special privileges and appoints a state board to ensure debts are not absorbed by taxpayers.
DeSantis called a Special Session in 2022 to file legislation to terminate all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968 and the removal of exemptions from the big tech accountability law.
The Gateway Pundit reported that last year, DeSantis signed a bill terminating all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968, including Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District. The new law removes Disney’s tax privilege and special governing status.
The Reedy Creek Improvement District is the governing jurisdiction and special taxing district for the land of Walt Disney World Resort.
The new bill remakes Disney’s Reedy Creek board, now called the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, striping Disney of control over the district and many of Disney’s self-governing powers.
BREAKING: Gov. Ron DeSantis officially signs into law the stripping of Disney’s special privileges, appointing a state board, and ensuring debts are not transferred to taxpayers pic.twitter.com/sOh1h5NmOD
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) February 27, 2023
The governor’s office said the bill will end Disney’s ability to: build airports, nuclear facilities, toll roads, boundary changes to their property, award noncompetitive construction contracts, and more.
“From a policy perspective, how do you give one theme park its own government and then treat all of the other theme parks differently?” DeSantis said. “And so we believe that was not good policy.”
At the press conference, the governor said the state and Disney had a “tussle” over the Parental Rights in Education Act, which prohibited teachers from teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity for K-3 graders.
“Disney came out against something that was really just about protecting young kids and making sure that students are able to go to school learning to read, write, add, subtract and not having a teacher tell them that they can change their gender,” DeSantis said.
President of the Reedy Creek Professional Firefighters Jon Shirey spoke at the press conference. He said there has been a blatant disregard and bias against the first responders for many years.
“The lack of concern for public safety has been very apparent by the reedy creek administration and the current board of supervisors,” Shirey said.
Shirey said they have had a shortage of firefighter paramedics and ambulances which led to major delays when responding to emergency calls.
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