The Florida Legislative session is now over following their standard 60-day run. During that time, the legislature functioned as an extension of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, pushing through 99% of what DeSantis wanted to be accomplished, according to comments made by the Governor. Among some of the bills that made their way to DeSantis’ desk include a bill that would nullify the Development Agreement contract that Disney World has with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and a state takeover of monorail system inspections. One agenda item that seemingly didn’t get addressed was the state takeover of Disney World ride inspections.
Back on April 17, 2023, DeSantis held a special press conference at Disney World where he announced intended punitive actions against Disney World in an effort to “level the playing field”, according to the Governor. During that press conference, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson spoke about a “proposal” that was going to allow for state oversight of Disney World attractions. Simpson spoke about the need for the state to inspect attractions currently exempted from state inspection by a 2001 Memorandum of Understanding (and resulting Florida Statute) that allowed large theme parks (greater than 1,000 employees) to conduct their own inspections and report injuries to the state.
The MOU and Florida Statute currently apply to all large theme parks equally. Disney World, Sea World, Universal Orlando, and others are all equally exempt from state ride inspections, but DeSantis made it clear that he wanted to singularly target Disney World.
While Simpson’s comments appeared to not be directly targeted at Disney World, DeSantis clarified that the inspections would be targeted at Disney World by applying any revocation of exemptions to “special districts” and not to the theme park community as a whole.
The hangup there might be that Sea World and Universal Orlando both sit in special districts similar to Disney World, but it’s likely that legislature would’ve been able to craft language to specifically target Disney World and carry out DeSantis’ wishes.
Despite the initial announcement by DeSantis, no such bill, amendment, or legislative action was introduced before the close of the legislative session last week.
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