The battle between Disney and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has already descended into lawsuits, and if the politician’s recent comments are any indication, things could get even more contentious before a resolution is reached. He appeared on TV this weekend and blasted Disney for allegedly not following through on its promises and said the sixty years of privileges it has been getting are over.
The comments were made during an interview with Newsmax. DeSantis was asked about all the back-and-forth with Disney. He blasted The Mouse House for, in his opinion, trying to exert “political influence” and said the company’s years of self-governance were a form of “corporate welfare.” He then went on to say the party is over. You can read a portion of his quote below…
At the end of the day, I think they just have to understand the party is over for them. They had sixty years of privileges that no other corporation in America has had. Whether it was appropriate at the time to get them there, I don’t know, but I can tell you this, when that deal was done, it was done that way because Disney promised to build communities and actually build cities where people would be able to live and work. They never followed through on that promise.
The battle between Disney and Florida’s government promises to be one of the weirdest and most complicated legal cases in history. Because of the way it’s all set up, Disney is going to technically end up paying for both the lawsuit against itself and the countersuit it filed, and the case will likely end up touching on a host of issues including First Amendment Rights, self-governing business districts and how much power local boards have.
Let’s back up for those of you not completely in the loop with a short backstory. In 1967, Florida politicians voted to create the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which essentially handed the land Disney World sits on to Disney and granted the company a lot of authority to build and implement changes without going through the normal processes. In the fifty plus years since, Disney World has rapidly built up that land and become one of the most popular tourist destinations in the entire world.
Last year, however, Disney spoke out against a new Florida law that was derisively dubbed by some opponents The Don’t Say Gay Bill. That very public statement did not sit well with Florida politicians, most prominently Governor Ron DeSantis, and he later made some statements about investigating Reedy Creeky. All kinds of complicated, behind the scenes maneuvers to pass and then undo new rules happened after, and now, we’ve got dueling lawsuits with uncertain outcomes.
If you watch the entire interview with Newsmax, it’s pretty clear this is not the politician’s primary issue. He talked about it in some detail, which generated the above quote, but he also wanted to talk about a lot of other stuff, which seemed to indicate he’s both serious about following through on this lawsuit but doesn’t consider it to be the only thing going on. The same can’t be said for Disney, which has a ton at stake with this lawsuit. Maybe that means the two sides will quietly reach some kind of agreement in the future, as there is also probably some concern on Florida's end about causing backlash with visitors. Or maybe it’ll mean they’ll be playing chess in court for years. We’ll just have to see.
