It’s one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen out of a corporation. The Walt Disney Company’s influence over a dissolved special district caused members of that board, in a last-ditch effort, to attempt giving Disney its governmental powers.
The online chatter about Disney World, Reedy Creek District, Governor Ron DeSantis and the new special district in Central Florida is becoming nauseating to me. The same people who have been wrong at every step of the process are now cheering that Disney seems to have pulled a fast-one over on the voters of Florida. Why you would be confused about the status of a global corporation in the midst of cutting billions in spending and eliminating thousands of jobs in months is beyond me. All I can figure is that pixie dust must be one heck of a drug.
Take, for example, the absolute piece of nonsense out of Newsweek, headlined “Ron DeSantis’ Board Rages Against Disney World After Legal Humiliation”:
A group of conservatives handpicked by Governor Ron DeSantis to oversee the governance of Walt Disney World in Florida have lashed out after discovering their predecessors signed an agreement that strips the new board of most of its powers.
The five-person Central Florida Tourism Oversight District was brought in by DeSantis in February to replace the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which had allowed Disney to run as its own self-governing authority in Florida for more than 50 years.
— Ewan Palmer, Newsweek
Apologies to Ewan, but being this wrong is impressive.
There are two main issues that really show how desperate Disney is to try to save their self-governance powers in Florida (worth billions of dollars over the next decades). This attempt by Disney is so legally untenable and unlikely to succeed that it reveals just how panicked they must be in Burbank.
Issue Number One: Transferring Government Powers to a Corporation
The last maneuver by the Reedy Creek Improvement District to make sure the de facto powers of Disney remain firmly in Disney’s control, and no longer through a manipulated, proxy district, is almost certainly illegal. In their final moments, RCID board members, all appointed by Disney, passed resolutions which attempt to transfer almost all governmental powers of RCID to The Walt Disney Company. But conveying government powers to a corporation doesn’t seem legal. And perhaps that’s the point — to try something bonkers and unprecedented that will slow things down in court. But the idea that a special district, which no longer exists, can bestow vast governmental powers to a publicly-traded corporation is bizarre.
Issue Number Two: Reliance on UK Law in Florida
This one really does take the cake. As part of this last-minute Hail Mary, the Reedy Creek board members approved a stipulation within the attempt to grant government powers to a corporation that is, yet again, probably an attempt to prolong a court fight. And maybe the entire goal there is to try to run out the clock by fighting in court until DeSantis leaves the governor’s mansion. So what is this crazy thing they came up? Well, they tied the cessation of governmental powers granted to Disney to English Law language regarding the passing of British Monarchy heirs. It’s so asinine and so strange that it almost guarantees that it only exists to force a legal battle over whether such language is even applicable in the State of Florida.
The Media and “DisTwitter” Completely Miss the Predictions
One of the craziest things to witness is just how badly the media and social media pixie dust sniffers are missing the entire situation. First, these “novel” legal maneuvers by Disney are unlikely to work other than to slow down the process. Second, the rejoicing that many of them are doing about DeSantis having been “defeated” by Disney is crazy. It is a total misunderstanding of conservatives. Ron DeSantis has just been handed the greatest gift he could have ever imagined. The media and the pixie dusters seem to not understand that the job losses, the Disney+ subscriber stagnations, the box office flops… it’s largely being driven by conservatives choosing to exit Disney’s consumer base. Many conservatives loathe modern Disney and love legacy Disney. And they will eat up a battle between Ron DeSantis and Disney going into the Republican primaries. Nothing could be better for DeSantis than for Disney to give him the opportunity to pounce them directly instead of their proxy district.
And that’s where the full misconception of what lies ahead really comes into picture.
Because the media and the Disney fanatics don’t understand any of this with great depth, they don’t know what Florida can now do to Disney. To break this down simply, the Reedy Creek Improvement District was supposed to be separate from Disney — a legitimate government power. It was controlled completely by two cities: Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake. Both cities were also supposed to be real cities back when they were chartered. But after Walt’s passing, Disney controlled those cities and turned each one into a single cul de sac of mobile homes where only people who are chosen by Disney may live in relative seclusion behind the scenes on the property of Disney World. But none of that would probably hold up under court scrutiny. These are pseudo-cities controlled in total by a corporation probably acting in bad faith. And all the Florida legislature has to do is audit those pseudo-cities, dissolve their charters and thus dissolve everything related to Reedy Creek, the new special district set up, and the cities which they left in tact, probably for this very reason. Far, far worse for Disney, if those pseudo-cities are dissolved, the huge sums of governmental debt they have incurred would then be transferred to the landowners of those cities. Except… there’s only one landowner: Disney.
“I cannot tell you the level of my disappointment in Disney. I thought so much better of them. This essentially makes Disney the government. This board loses, for practical purposes, the majority of its ability to do anything beyond maintain the roads and maintain basic infrastructure.”
— Ron Peri, Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board
But if you think that Disney is going to be allowed to have actual government powers (something they’ve never had before), based on laws and ideas seemingly outside the scope of the American legal system… I have some governmental powers I’d like to sell you too.
All of this is nonsensical desperation unbecoming of a company the size of Disney, heralded by morons who don’t understand what is actually going on, and leading up to a far worse consequence for the House of Mouse. And all of it gambled on the idea that whoever one day replaces DeSantis will wave a white flag and let Mickey keep his one-of-a-kind, Vatican City style Sunshine State situation.
Good luck with that…
For all the latest news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place. As always, drop a comment down below and let us know your thoughts.
“This board loses, for practical purposes,”
Why would the board say that? For practical purposes, the agreement is already null and void and should be ignored, but I guess there’s a formal process to nullify it. Just hold a board meeting to nullify it and force Disney to sue to uphold it. A good offensive is better than a bad defense.
Disney keeps willing I guess. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Disney going to end up with a black eye by fighting this. Won’t have good optics.
Thank you for this breakdown. The MSM is doing a victory lap, but I knew I would only find the truth on this website. This is not going to end well for Disney. They saw what happens when they tick off DeSantis. This move was ill conceived and the optics aren’t great. This is going to get uglier and they better be ready for the blowback.
It’s what we aim for.
what truth?
“it’s largely being driven by conservatives choosing to exit Disney’s consumer base.”
no its because what disney has made has been lackluster conservatives aren this massive base for disney. If they were so big we sould right wing movies be be biger at the box office
There are a few movies which have appealed to conservatives. “The Passion of the Christ” was a good example of it.
But in general, Hollywood simply doesn’t want to market to half the country even if it means leaving money on the table, because they view that half of the country as filthy untouchables.
Hey Pro, big fan but if anyone looks like they’ve been pantsed in this situation its DeSantis and maybe even you? I know you’ve got your thumb in a lot of pies, and spinning a lot of plates at once but the old RCID board did this on February 9th. Correct me if I’m wrong but this seems to be your first mention of this. I think you, and others squarely in the right-wing “cultural criticism” environment missed this, big time. It was publicly recorded on February 9th for all the world to see and its this week that it’s presented with shock and outrage? That’s kind of laughable in the same way a lot of right-wing critics thought this RCID restructure was just a slam dunk for DeSantis and a big push back in the culture war. You’re also missing the forest for the trees; I guarantee you there is perhaps even a plurality of Republican state representatives who WANT this to happen. They liked the culture war optics but at the end of the day they know RCID as it has functioned for 50 plus years was good for Florida. So either they, Desantis, and the right-wing culture critics were all asleep at the wheel for almost two months (probably!) and those that noticed wanted Disney to retain control.
Seems like there’s no public hearings as required. They simply published it on the same day as the new district legislation is passed. So it’s debatable on whether the contract is legitimate. I would think Florida would rather deal with this objectively and cleanly to not give Disney an advantage. Suing is the last resort, but Disney should be the one who is suing, not the new district.