Current law has given Disney special status for 55 years.
QUICK FACTS:
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) during a special session on Tuesday asked state lawmakers to take up dismantling Walt Disney World’s self-governing status.
- The governor announced the move in a proclamation (pdf), asking members of the Florida House of Representatives and Senate that the state’s updated Constitution from 1968 “generally disfavors” special laws granting privileges to private corporations but does permit creating special districts such as the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
- The RCID was established by the Reedy Creek Improvement Act of 1967, which is the state legislation that gave the Walt Disney Company its ability to self-govern the Magic Kingdom theme park and its surrounding areas and infrastructure.
- The law passed by Florida legislators in 1967 created the district, which allows Disney to run about 25,000 acres in Orange and Osceola counties significantly free of outside input.
- Gov. DeSantis said he wants to amend and expand the redistricting and reapportionment special session to include “termination of all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968, and that includes the Reedy Creek Improvement District.”
- DeSantis went on to say that it’s “necessary” to review all special districts made before 1968 “to ensure that they are appropriately serving the public interest.”
- “I am announcing today that we are expanding the call of what they are going to be considering,” DeSantis said during a press conference at The Villages in Florida. “Yes, they will be considering the congressional map but they also will be considering termination of all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968 and that includes the Reedy Creek Improvement District.”
WHAT ELSE DESANTIS SAID:
“What I would say as a matter of first principle is I don’t support special privileges in law just because a company is powerful and they’ve been able to wield a lot of power,” DeSantis said during a press conference last month. “I think what has happened is there’s a lot of these special privileges that are not justifiable, but because Disney had held so much sway, they were able to sustain a lot of special treatment over the years.”
BACKGROUND:
- Disney recently drew criticism for taking a stand against a Florida law banning teaching about gender orientation or sexual identity to kindergarten through 3rd grade.
- The media conglomerate had called the bill “another challenge to basic human rights” and vowed to labor “for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts.”
