The Florida House has just voted to pass SB 1604, which is a Land Use bill that includes an amendment that narrowly targets a multi-decade Development Agreement that Disney World has with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. The bill passed 75-34.
In discussion, Rep. Anna V. Eskamani asked, “when are we going to stop playing ‘Whack-a-Mouse’ just because our Governor is big mad that he got outsmarted by Disney?”. Beyond Disney, she talked about the danger of using the government to undo contracts that the majority doesn’t like. She noted that the legislative body is getting involved in contracts and that the “inappropriate” conduct from legislators violates the US Constitution. She talked about how the legislative is passing punitive policies, weaponizing government to punish the enemies of the majority party.
Rep. Dotie Joseph spoke directly to the businesses that could be affected by the “slippery slope” of this legislation. She noted that any businesses could be “on the chopping block” should they express an opinion that Governor Ron DeSantis doesn’t like.
On the other side of the coin, Rep. Tobin Rogers “Toby” Overdorf accused Disney and the Reedy Creek Improvement District did not “outsmart” the State but rather broke the law in their construction of the Development Agreement.
Rep. William Cloud “Will” Robinson Jr. called the old RCID Board a “lame duck” board and said he wished that SB 1604 would go further to address what he views as the old board saddling the new board with obligations.
The narrowly written amendment allows an independent special district to ignore any Development Agreement or any other agreement executed within the 3 months preceding a law that modified the makeup of that District’s governing body membership. Interestingly, this appears to be an amendment with an even more limited intention than the already narrow wording. The amendment subsection will expire in July 2028 if not saved from repeal before then. It is essentially a legislative version of limited-time magic, but only if limited-time magic was retaliatory and inevitably headed to court.
How does this apply to Disney World’s situation? Walt Disney World and the former Reedy Creek Improvement District entered into a Development Agreement in February – just before a bill passed that allowed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to take over the operations of the RCID. The agreement was valid and contractual, but the Governor’s team completely missed the fact that it was happening and they didn’t register any public comments against the Development Agreement. Technically, the Development Agreement still exists because the RCID was simply renamed and not dismantled as was the original intent of the legislation in Summer 2022. Critically, the amendment was written in a way that specifically applies to the CFTOD and the series of events that led to the creation of the current Board of Supervisors.
An amendment from Rep. Anna Eskamani was introduced yesterday to ensure that State funds would not be used to pay attorney fees or any other costs incurred in defense of the legislation. Essentially, Rep. Eskamani wanted DeSantis to personally pay his own legal fees when this inevitably goes to court. That amendment failed.
The bill will make its way to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ desk. DeSantis has already indicated that he will sign the bill to nullify the Development Agreement between the CFTOD and Walt Disney World.
In addition to this legislation, the CFTOD is suing Walt Disney World and asking the judge to void the Development Agreement and Restrictive Covenants. Disney World is suing DeSantis and the CFTOD Board in federal court to have a judge declare the agreements valid, among other complaints by Disney.
Disney is said to be paying close attention to SB 1604, but they have not yet filed any lawsuit or offered a response to the passing of SB 1604 through the Florida legislature.
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!
Let’s just assume that I’m an ignorant Old Fossil who is told old to unravel big ol’ 50c words, ‘mmkayyy?
What does this mean…in just plain, non-legal speak?
It means that the FL state legislature is trying to invalidate a valid contract – in this case the Development Agreement – made between a governmental agency and a private business, which is unconstitutional, going all the way back to the Founding Fathers’ fears that states would try to renege on paying their debts. If this situation were actually allowed, you could have situations where a government could contract with a vendor for services/materials, and after the vendor fulfills its part, the government could then pass a bill saying “oh, that contract isn’t valid so we don’t have to pay you.” The FL legislature will lose big-time in court over this unless the judges decide to favor DeSantis over Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.
Got it…
Thanks for that👍🏽
Yep exactly and so much for the party of small government. DeSantis is a disgrace to his party and the constitution.
* too old
Good Ole DeSantis expending all of his energy on trying to outwit a company that is much smarter and had more resources to fight back. Killing his political ambitions and destroying his own taxpayers in the process. Gotta love spiteful, vindictive politicians. Don’t let him anywhere near the White House.
Are thier districts like Disney in the state. Ie the villages and others?
Yes, several,
“How many special districts exist in Florida?
About Florida Association of Special Districts
There are over 1,900 Independent and Dependent Special Districts in the state of Florida, governed by more than 30 statutes, involving over 500 local governments.
https://www.fasd.com
Florida Association of Special Districts
The way I see it is that Disney owes me money! They charged me taxes on everything! If they never paid taxes why do they charge taxes? I used to take my family every other year, stay on property and take their cruises. So maybe I should take disney to court to get back all the money they owe me?
Disney is the largest taxpayer in Florida.
They DO pay taxes. They are in the top three corporations in three categories- Largest employers, Largest corporate taxpayers, and, importantly, Largest Republican donors. Ooops. Poor DeSatan is doing himself.
While some places in south Florida are short on fuel and people are fighting to keep there homes after the Hurricane and letting the Insurance companies leaved Florida without being held accountable. This is the guy a lot of people in the state of Florida wanted for there governor 🙄, while he tries to fight with the largest employer in the state of Florida, and doing his little dirty work behind the scenes, changing laws and doesn’t want people of color to know their heritage and where they came to get thus far. But don’t worry, the good old boys would never let someone like this in the White House.
As a shareholder, id like to personally sue DeSantis and I pray to God every day that his political career is kaput
Florida government is real clowns. I laughed at all the totalitarian legislature. They are a waste of money.
Ban state governments, I have a cell and can vote on all issues. I don’t need them to spend my money. How much has this admin wasted on special sessions, human trafficking (immigrants), lawyers to take away rights.
Tell him to spend his time fuxing our insurance problems in Florida. Leave legitimate businesses aline.
Look deeper than this liberal rag. it’s less about politics and more about an outdated agreement
Right, it’s so outdated that the Florida legislature decided that it’s the way of the future starting in July 2028….
It’s amazing the stuff conservatives pull out of ‘their ears’ when they want something awful, whether it’s the power to decide which contracts between every private corporation will be broken and destabilize ALL business in the US or fail to do their duty and vote on Supreme Court nominees duly advanced by the president and taking all the legitimacy out of the courts or allowing bosses to keep their workers pay without any repercussion and then complaining that nobody to work (when they never know if they’ll actually get paid…)
Pull your heads out of ‘your ears’ (say it quick, you’ll get it) and quit complaining about ‘liberal rags’ that publish the truth rather than your favorite outlets that consider paying almost a billion dollars a justified business expense for the business model of publishing known lies to their audience rather than risk them tuning to the lies at OAN and NewsMax
Dumbest article ever. Desantis didn’t get outsmarted. Some loons think Disney can just jot some jibberish on a piece of paper and it overrides law. Nope. No special privileges for any corporation.
Lawyers jotting done gibberish on a piece of paper is what’s known as a “contract” and has been the basis for literally EVERYTHING in this country from the time it started.
The contract Disney signed did not override the law, which any observer can easily tell because that was why the legislature even felt the need to pass a law pertaining to this.
Essentially Florida could not find any law that Disney was trying to override, so they one up after-the-fact, or ‘ex-post facto’ as it’s known in law
And that’s EXACTLY why Article 1, Section 10 of the US states that “No State shall enter into […] ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, […] .”
It’s almost like our Founding Father’s knew what unscrupulous and un-American politicians would try to pull on us and made “the Supreme Law of the Land” to stop them from doing exactly that, huh?
Love the comments from the Bubba Cowlicks on things legal and governmental of which they have absolutely no clue, being products of the Republican War on Education and propaganda from Faux Newz.
How to say you have literally no idea how any of this legal stuff works without saying you have no idea.
Florida gave zero reason why they should be allowed to impair contracts and Florida republicans are on record admitting this is meant to punish Disney’s free speech. So that’s violation of the contracts clause, prohibition on bill of attainders and a violation of free speech.
Ron is an idiot. Along with a major reason why I moved out of Florida. This is so stupid what happened to the first amendment and the right to free speech. Not to speak on how does the government get involved in business contracts. If this is what the 2024 pool of candidates is shaping up to be then it looks like Florida won’t be the only place I move from. After this current administration I can’t stomach another four years of just plain idiotic chaos.
DeSantis got outsmarted and now he’s just being petty.
DeSantis is an idiot. He matches Trump for his stupidity