Florida Governor Ron DeSantis moves to nullify Disney's last-minute deal with outgoing Reedy Creek to protect its Walt Disney World interests

Apr 17, 2023 in "Reedy Creek Improvement District"

Gallery / 3 Photos
Reedy Creek Improvement District overview

Posted: Monday April 17, 2023 1:05pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is continuing his retaliatory action against Disney by announcing today that Florida lawmakers will advance a bill to formally nullify Disney's February agreement with the outgoing Reedy Creek Improvement District that rendered the new DeSantis-appointed board powerless for decades to come.

DeSantis was joined by Wilton Simpson, Florida's Commissioner of Agriculture, at a press event at the Reedy Creek Improvement District HQ just steps away from Disney Springs.

Reedy Creek Improvement District overview

In addition to move towards nullifying the latest agreements created between Disney and Reedy Creek Improvement District, DeSantis said that Walt Disney World will be subject to state-ran ride inspections, including the monorail system. Notably, DeSantis said that he expects this to only apply to Disney due to it being located within a special district, and will not impact Universal Orlando or Sea World.

The large Central Florida theme parks, including Disney and Universal, currently do their own ride inspections, largely because the ride systems are highly specialized, and the state does not have personnel able to carry out the work.

DeSantis also again spoke about imposing higher taxes on Walt Disney World, recovering Reedy Creek debt from Disney more quickly, and even developing a state prison or other amusement park on Reedy Creek land. DeSantis threatened last week to impose tolls on Walt Disney World roads, but seemed to step away from that idea today due to its impact to Florida residents.

The new Central Florida Tourism Oversight board will meet again on Wednesday to discuss its next steps against Disney.

The Florida Governor's dispute with Disney initially began with Disney's public opposition to his Parental Right Bill, and has intensified in recent weeks as Disney appears to have out-smarted the Florida Governor in his attempts to seize effective control of the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

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MR.Dis8 days ago

To give an example, I am retired from JP Morgan Chase, the provider of Disney Visa charge cards. I was eligible to purchase WDW and Disneyland tickets thru a portal for 20% off the rack rate. I do not know if that is still the case. While I was an annual pass holder purchasing thru DVC, I would purchase tickets for my kids when they visited WDW with their families. It was a significant savings.

flyakite8 days ago

Should anyone be interested and would like to attend:

michmousefan21 days ago

cranbiz22 days ago

Not really a distortion of facts. Yes, RCID was a legally a separate entity from TWDC. In reality, it was controlled by WDW, which is why DeSantis had a hard on for getting revenge on TWDC for "don't say gay" and other woke policies by trying to revoke the district. He couldn't do that for many reasons so he got the law changed to appoint his own governing board. As we know, that really did fail miserably and there is now a board that is not antagonistic towards Disney. There is a charge for those benefits to the third party entities in some way, shape or form. WDW doesn't give anything away for free. RCID (and many third party operating participants) pay for those benefits (usually at a very reduced rate). So, in the case of RCID, Disney paid for those benefits through it's tax assessments because RCID has no income of it's own except for income received from it's taxpayers (of which TWDC is it's largest and majority taxpayer). So, what I said was true. WDW paid for the benefits granted by RCID to it's employees and RCID, by granting those benefits paid WDW back for them. This keeps everything legal. Yes, CFTOD wanted to stick it to Disney by refusing to pay WDW for those benefits, which in turn stuck it to the employees. RCID and CFTOD employees were never WDW Cast Members, they were employees of RCID or are/were employees of CFTOD.

LAKid5322 days ago

It takes little time to release a completed report. Unless that report didn't say exactly what you wanted it to say....

LAKid5322 days ago

Governor's office receives a FOIA (govt in the Sunshine) request... "What's sunshine?" 🙄

LAKid5322 days ago

🤫

LAKid5322 days ago

Florida statute says state records are open to the public. It doesn't say how quickly agencies have to provide the info. When I worked for various state agencies, we tried getting the requested info as quickly as possible. If it was a state legislator or governor's office, yesterday wasn't fast enough. 😉

LAKid5322 days ago

Bingo

Chi8422 days ago

So they had to ferret it out as opposed to the government releasing it to the news agencies. That’s understandable. Those requests can take a surprisingly long time to fulfill.

Stripes22 days ago

WKMG submitted a public records request. That request was just recently fulfilled and the document released. WKMG hasn’t said when they submitted the request.

Unbanshee22 days ago

Lol, you must be new here. The state doesn't like to "live in the sunshine" when it comes to matters that the esteemed governor finds personally difficult

Chi8422 days ago

The memo is dated June 21. Reporting on it the day after Christmas seems to be the definition of “old news.” Although it could be that Florida dragged its feet releasing it for some reason.