The Florida Senate has passed a bill (SB 1250) that contains an amendment that would allow for the Florida Department of Transportation to take over inspections of the Walt Disney World monorail system. The amendment, which was introduced by Senator Nick DiCeglie, narrowly targets the Walt Disney World monorail system and was acknowledged by Sen. DiCeglie as targeting only Walt Disney World.
Discussion about the amendment was lively, with other Senators arguing that the amendment was narrowly written as a targeted piece of legislation that serves only to act as a retaliatory action against Walt Disney World in an ongoing culture war spearheaded by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Senator Jason W. B. Pizzo called the amendment “socialism”, saying that the government was seeking to seize the means of production, distribution, and exchange of a private business. Sen. Pizzo went on to say that the legislator could save trees by reducing the words in the amendment to simply note that they are targeting Walt Disney World instead of making it seem like other fixed-guideway systems would be covered by the amendment. Sen. Pizzo continued to argue that the monorail amendment “stained and ruined” a bill that he would’ve otherwise voted for.
As we have previously covered, the bill is narrowly written to specifically target Walt Disney World, addressing “any governmentally or privately owned fixed-guideway transportation systems operating in this state which are located within an independent special district created by local act which have boundaries within two contiguous counties”.
Senator Tina Scott Polsky also argued that the amendment was “pure malpractice” that the legislature would introduce legislation that targets the Walt Disney World monorail system becuase DeSantis’ “feelings were hurt”. Sen. Polsky also said that she would’ve voted for the bill sans the monorail provision. Sen. Polsky asked where the retribution ends with Disney World. She asked if they would come back next year to fight Disney’s food & beverage operations. Sen. Polsky said that a yes vote on this bill encourages Disney to leave Florida.
SB 1250, with the Disney World monorail amendment carve out, passed 26-14. The bill will go back to the Florida House, now with the monorail amendment, for a final passage before heading to DeSantis’ desk.
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!
Why is everyone afraid of an outside agency inspecting a transporation system that carries hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of consumers every year? Surely the monorail at WDW is in perfectly safe condition. The public demands government action, inspection, oversight, of many forms of transporation, usually privately owned (cars, trucks, trains, aircraft, balloons, bikes, motorcycles, etc). Why is a monorail at Disney “hands off?” Targeted? Perhaps, and what’s wrong with that? On the otherhand nothing prevents another private company from buliding similar transporation – Disney does not own the rights to monorail type systems ( which predate WDW by decades). Inspections are in the public interest. What’s next, protesting health department inspectiosn of the restaurants and food service? How much pixie dust have these people eaten??
Disney already employs full-time inspectors, both for the obvious benefit of the safety of Disney guests and as required by state law, who regularly monitor the WDW monorail system and are intimately familiar with its intricacies. The experience of most Florida DOT inspectors, on the other hand, is likely to be limited to more conventional and common transportation systems. As a park guest, I’d much sooner trust a Disney inspector – who has a personal connection to the monorails and a built-in motivation for keeping park guests safe – over a potentially overworked state inspector with an unknown background and bureaucratic guidelines to follow.
State and federal agencies DO get involved whenever there’s an unfortunate (and rare) monorail incident. The issue here is that this new law will give the state, through the Florida DOT, an opportunity to further harm Disney by requiring the shut-down of the monorail for inspections whenever it wants and for however much time the state inspectors claim they need to complete the inspection. Remember when NJ Gov. Chris Christie’s administration punished the mayor of Ft. Lee, NJ, for failing to support Christie’s reelection campaign by shutting down most of the lanes of the George Washington Bridge, causing a major days-long gridlock? It shouldn’t be difficult to foresee Gov. DeSantis deciding that because Disney hasn’t apologized and begged for mercy, it’s time for a state inspection that will require the monorail system to be shut down for 3 weeks…in December…over Christmas and New Year’s. Thousands of guests will be adversely impacted, Disney’s bus transportation system will be completely overwhelmed, Disney will suffer financial losses, and there will be nothing Disney can do about it.
Funny how Republicans who supposedly want to privatize and get government off our backs have no problem with government mandating what they don’t want taught in schools, punishing a company for exercising free speech against that, and taking over inspections of a company’s system that operates only on private property.