Following a report yesterday that some lawmakers were looking into repealing the 1967 Reedy Creek Improvement Act, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis weighed in on the matter in a press conference this afternoon in West Palm Beach.
In his response, DeSantis pointed to a special exception from a 2021 law that Disney “carved out in the 11th hour” that prevented Disney from facing any penalties under SB 7072. The bill, which aimed to “prohibit a social media platform from willfully deplatforming a candidate”, didn’t seem to affect Disney at all, but Republican state Rep. Blaise Ingoglia said that the amendment was added to ensure Disney+ wasn’t caught up in the bill.
DeSantis went on to dance around addressing the specific Reedy Creek Improvement Act, but said that “as a matter of first principle, I don’t support special privileges in law, just because a company is powerful”.
DeSantis went on to say that he doesn’t believe that Disney holds much power in the state. However, Disney is the largest employer in Florida, and arguably the leader of Florida’s essential tourism industry. DeSantis fell short of saying that we would approve of a repeal of Disney’s special taxing district but ended by saying “you should not have one organization that gets to dictate [policy], and [Disney has] done that for many years. If that stops now, and it should, that would be a good thing for Florida.” He said that “it was probably never appropriate” for Disney to “govern themselves”, and added that “it’s certainly not appropriate now at this point”.
Disney has not responded to DeSantis’ remarks.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
DeSantis is on a power trip. Dude barely won the governor election and has used this platform to attack Homosexuals and try and harm the biggest money maker in the state by a lot. Sounds like he is the one who wants special privileges. Can’t stand this guy honestly. Super arrogant. Mickey Mouse will always get special privileges. If it were up to me Me Disney World Would pay NO taxes at all, instead we would benefit off of Sales Tax alone.
Oh well
Glad it isn’t up to you.
Disney needs to avoid politics or it will get burned. If it plans to make money and keep its influence among people who frequent its parks, its films, etc, it needs to tone down the LBGTQ agenda. We do not need lectures from Disney, nor do we need it pushed in our face. Disney should have kept quiet about the recent bill in Florida, but they had to placate a very small segment of their fan base. Go woke go broke. Ignore large segments of the fan base if you dare. Disney is not the only entertainment option.
Disney has a great thing going with the Reddy Creek Development Zone. Why jeopardize it????