DeSantis Claims Disney’s Reedy Creek District Stripped New State Controlled Tourism Board of Authority  

Edited by: TJVNews.com

As ongoing conflicts between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Walt Disney Company continue to dominate headlines, on Thursday, the Post reported that the Republican governor says that he has unfinished business with the Mouse House.

DeSantis reacted to news that Disney’s autonomous board effectively stripped its successor of power just a day before state lawmakers gave the governor the authority to take over the body, according to the Post report.

The DeSantis administration is currently scrutinizing the legality or lack thereof of a clandestine deal agreed to by the now-defunct Reedy Creek Improvement District and the Walt Disney Company.

The Post reported that during a book stop tour in Smyrna, Ga., on Thursday, DeSantis said, “There’s a lot of little back-and-forth going on now with the state control.  Audience members booed at the mention of the Mouse House, the report indicated.

“But rest assured — you ain’t seen nothing yet,” DeSantis said, according to the Post report. “There’s more to come in that regard.”

Insider reported that the office of Ashley Moody, the Florida Attorney General, has produced a letter seeking documents, emails and text messages from former members of the Reedy Creek Improvement District and DeSantis’ office has been circulating this letter.

The Post reported that Moody is seeking “documents discussing an intention or goal of circumventing, avoiding, frustrating, mitigating, or otherwise attempting” to sidestep Florida law.

The Reedy Creek Improvement District is the Disney-dominated board that manages the company’s theme parks and resorts in and around Orlando and the Post reported that it was created more than a half-century ago as part of efforts to entice Disney, which is one of Florida’s largest private employers, to build attractions that would boost tourism for the Sunshine State.

Last month, DeSantis dissolved the Reedy Creek Improvement District by signing a measure to do so into law. The Post reported that the move on DeSantis’s part came after Disney voiced its opposition to the governor’s legislation that places limits on teaching sex and gender education to youngsters.

After the dissolution of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the state of Florida created the Central Florida Tourism District, which is under its authority, the report indicated.

“We want our kids to be kids. We want them to be able to enjoy entertainment school without having an agenda imposed upon them. And so if you’re going that way, as a corporation, those are not the values that we want to promote in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.

“We want to promote the safety of our students and the rights of our parents. So we had this situation here, that was basically indefensible. From a policy perspective, how do you give one theme park its own government and then treat all the other theme parks differently?” DeSantis asked, deeming it bad policy which was not “justifiable or sustainable.”

As DeSantis geared up to create the new district and dissolve Reedy Creek, he said on the day he signed the measure creating the new district, “It will end Disney’s exemption from state regulatory reviews and approval. It will end Disney secrecy by finally ensuring transparency about what goes on in this area. It will ensure that it pays its fair share of taxes. It will prevent local governments dominated by leftist politicians from using this situation to raise local taxes,” the governor said, promising that this will be “no additional tax burden” on any Floridian.

“This bill and the structure that we’ve created in this bill will ensure that the municipal debt that’s been wrapped up will be paid by Disney– not by Florida taxpayers. And so this is what accountability looks like. This is what standing up for Florida taxpayers in the rule of law looks like,” he added.

“The state of Florida is the new sheriff in town,” DeSantis said, announcing members of the new state-controlled which will responsible for governing the area.

While Disney will still have the authority to operate without restrictions within the newly created district, the state run district prohibits the use of the name “Disney” or any characters such as the iconic Mickey Mouse as well as symbols or intellectual property associated with the resort under the terms of the agreement.

The Post reported that the board members picked by DeSantis said they were powerless to exercise any sort of real authority after their predecessors quietly passed a restrictive development agreement just before the new law dissolving Reedy Creek went into effect.

The agreement that was secretly forged between Reedy Creek and Disney, as was reported by the Post gave the company power to develop the 27,000 acres (42 square miles) of land that is home to its theme parks and resorts.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that outside legal assistance will be brought in to advise on the matter after it was voted on the new board of supervisors in the Central Florida Tourism District.

Board member Brian Aungst Jr. said, “We’re going to have to deal with it and correct it. It’s a subversion of the will of the voters and the Legislature and the governor. It completely circumvents the authority of this board to govern,” according to the Post report.

A spokesperson for the Disney company released a statement earlier this week denying allegations that it acted improperly.

“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,” the company said in a statement.