BUSINESS | DISPUTES | ENTERTAINMENT
Florida Governor Vows to Retake Control of Disney Self-Government
The famous little mouse will soon eat his cheese due to a confrontation with the entertainment giant and the governor of Florida who demands – for the first time – that the district where the Disney parks are located pay taxes and would also have to pay a millionaire debt
The news spread like wildfire through important national and international media, since Monday they announced that the Florida Congress began a special session during which the restructuring of the special district that allowed Walt Disney World self-government over its possessions in this southern state. The measure is promoted by the current governor, Ron DeSantis.
The Disney workers’ union rejects the proposal but in April, the state Lower House approved the elimination, effective in June of this year, of the Reedy Creek Improvement district, where the parks that Disney – the largest employer in the state with 80,000 workers – are located. – and that since 1967, the year it was created, allows the company to manage its land with its own public services and autonomy.
Over the next few days, legislators from the state Congress, dominated in both chambers by Republicans, will discuss the process over the company’s properties.
Ron DeSantis
DeSantis recently noted that “Disney will no longer have a self-governing state. We will make sure that there are no special legal privileges, and that they pay their fair share of taxes and pay off the debt,” he stated.
The lawsuit between the entertainment giant and DeSantis, who this year could announce his intention to compete for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election, broke out when the then CEO of The Walt Disney Company, Bob Chapek, criticized the well-known law Like “Don’t say gay.”
Bob Chapek
As a result of this law that went into effect last year, and that prohibits teachers from speaking to students up to the third grade of primary school about issues of sexual orientation and gender, Chapek also announced that he would stop his political donations in Florida, which included the governor’s team.
The Republican pointed out that Disney’s pronouncement was “dishonest” and that it had “crossed the line”, and a month after it was approved in Congress, he signed the law, an initiative that boosted his figure nationally and among Republican voters.