Disney remains silent after Ron DeSantis signs Florida law revoking special status in the state

Five long days after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation to revoke Disney’s special tax privileges and self-governing status in the state, the entertainment giant has remained officially silent.

The move, set to take effect in June 2023, has sparked countless opinion pieces (Paul Krugman of the New York Times called the bill an “assault on democracy”) and even comments from of President Biden (“Damn, they’re going after Mickey Mouse,” he said at a fundraiser in Oregon).

But the company, which remains Florida’s largest private employer, has not released any statements on the new law — and its representatives did not respond to TheWrap’s requests for comment. (Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District officials released a statement last Thursday saying the state cannot proceed with its dissolution plan unless it also covers all outstanding debts owed to the district’s bondholders , including interest payments.)

It’s possible that Disney CEO Bob Chapek — who has flip-flopped on the company’s response to the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill that banned references to “sexual orientation or “gender identity” K-3 – just please Avoid publicly provoking a rising Republican who seems eager to use Disney as a target in the culture wars and boost his own political ambitions.

After all, DeSantis was only too eager to criticize Disney, saying the company had “crossed the line” for finally taking a public stand against the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. It also stoked far-right QAnon conspirators who last week tried to block the entrance to Walt Disney World and hung a sign accusing the company of pedophilia. (Bizarre claims included the unsubstantiated idea that the Utilidors, a series of gateways beneath the Magic Kingdom, were used for human trafficking instead of, you know, making sure you didn’t see a cowboy from Frontierland to Tomorrowland.)

DeSantis quickly pushed to abolish the special rights that Florida had granted Disney in 1967 for the 25,000-acre Reedy Creek Improvement District — the area where Florida’s Disney Parks now calls home. Needless to say, this is a decidedly aggressive move against a company that, according to a 2019 Oxford Economics study, “produces $5.8 billion in tax revenue for the state thanks to $75 billion in dollars of economic activity that supports 463,000 jobs.”

While Disney enjoyed many privileges under this 1967 law – intended to lure the company away from Northern California and into Florida to build Walt Disney World – the company also assumed the cost of many basic government services normally paid for by taxpayers. As the Washington Post puts it, “Disney is responsible for everything, including road maintenance, building inspections, 911 emergency calls and wastewater treatment.”

The new law would shift those responsibilities — and costs — onto state and local government. Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph estimated that county taxpayers would have to pay $164 million a year to pay for services currently covered by Disney — which would likely result in property tax hikes and other additional costs. (The district also occupies parts of Osceola County.)

But many note that the Reedy Creek Improvement District will remain unchanged until June 2023 — which could discourage Disney from challenging DeSantis on any upcoming legislation. Or reverse his recent decision to end all political donations in the state. “This leaves the sword of Damocles hanging over Disney’s head for 13 months. It silences them,” Florida state Sen. Jeff Brandes (R) told the Washington Post. “No one really thinks this is going to happen. The cost to the state would be astronomical, potentially several billion dollars. »

Brandes, the only Republican to vote against the bill, is up for re-election in the fall (he is also a potential Republican candidate for president in 2024, as is DeSantis). “It’s not even really about Disney,” Brandes told the Post of DeSantis’ exploitation of the Disney problem. “It’s about staying on Fox. The aim is to extend the media life of this scenario. It’s gold for him.