DeSantis will quash Disney move to strip his board of power

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a fresh offensive against Disney Monday after its last minute attempt to neutralize his oversight of the entertainment giant.

Speaking in the shadow of a number of Disney Parks in Lake Buena Vista, DeSantis said the GOP-controlled state Legislature will move to annul a brazen bid by the company to strip his remade supervisory board of power.

“Disney did special deals to circumvent that whole process,” he said Monday. “They controlled the board. It was basically a legal fiction where they negotiated with themselves to give themselves self-governing status. That’s in direct defiance of the will of the people of Florida.”

DeSantis asserted the state Legislature has the ability to quash Disney’s actions outright and will do so.

“You’re not going to have Disney have its own government in Central Florida,” he said. “You’re going to live under the same laws as everybody else.”

DeSantis, 44, previously expelled the five Disney-backed members of a panel that oversaw the since-renamed Reedy Creek Improvement District and handpicked their replacements.

The change, he said, would roll back the company’s quasi-governmental powers and subject them to more robust state scrutiny.

But in an 11th-hour gambit, outgoing board members voted in special measures which reverted most of the panel’s powers to the entertainment giant.

The restrictions gave full developmental authority over the 27,000-acre property to the parent company and barred the board — now called the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District — from any use of the Disney brand.

In addition to voiding that move, the presumptive 2024 presidential candidate noted the state owns undeveloped land in the same district, and has fielded many suggestions for what to do with it.

He mused: “People have said maybe create a state park, maybe try to do more amusement parks. Someone even said maybe you need another state prison.

“Who knows?” he said. “The possibilities are endless. That is now going to be analyzed to see what would make the most sense. And that wasn’t even on our radar.”

DeSantis also Monday he will seek to reverse other perks Disney has enjoyed since the establishment of its special tax district in 1967.

The park’s monorail, transportation systems and rides have been exempt from external inspections — but new regulations could make Disney subject to bolstered oversight.

DeSantis said the new board will also explore selling off Disney World’s utilities to a private entity to save money, hiking pay for first responders and expanding workforce housing at the site.

The Republican noted that while Disney owns much of the land under the board’s control, some parcels are property of the district. Those areas, he said, could potentially be put to other uses independent of Disney.

DeSantis also highlighted that Disney has been able to appraise its own land for tax purposes — and that the board will investigate that process.

The panel will aim to ensure that “this company is under the law, following the law, paying taxes, and honoring the debts and not governing itself.”

The confrontation sparked after Disney publicly rebuked a DeSantis-backed Florida law that banned discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through the third grade.

DeSantis argued that the material is age inappropriate and that parents should determine when the topics are initially broached to their children.

Critics, who branded the legislation the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, said that it fomented an anti-LGBTQ atmosphere in schools.

DeSantis administration officials ripped Disney’s power play, calling it a “poison pill” that subverted a legislative action and ran afoul of public notice requirements.

Disney denied those accusations and maintained that they fully complied with state law in making the changes.

“All agreements signed between Disney and the district were appropriate and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law,” Disney said in a statement earlier this month.

Florida’s largest employer, Disney World includes four theme parks, two water parks, 25 hotels and roughly 80,000 employees.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on DeSantis’ Monday remarks.