DeSantis will move to nullify Disney deal that stripped his power

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will escalate his war against the Walt Disney Company on Monday when he announces harsh new measures that will ensure the theme park lives happily ever after.

The Republican governor will announce that the state legislature will invalidate Disney’s legal maneuvers that effectively stripped DeSantis’ new supervisory board of authority over the company.

“The legislature is able to come in under these circumstances and nullify these agreements,” DeSantis said Monday on the Good Morning Orlando radio program.

“We are going to introduce a bill in this legislative session that will formally nullify what is needed, and make sure people understand that you can’t put your own business above the will of the people of Florida.”

He will fire his last shot in Disney’s hometown. He will make the formal announcement later Monday in Lake Buena Vista, the city where Disney World is located.

And he goes even further and goes for a one-two punch against the amusement park giant.

While DeSantis takes action on the state’s side, his new board of trustees will this week discuss a resolution barring Disney from using the two cities in which the parks are located to maintain control of their franchise.

“That they’re trying to do a final round around the people of Florida to show how arrogant they are,” the governor told iHeart radio Monday morning. “We also have a meeting of our state control council on Wednesday. And they’re going to unveil a series of initiatives designed to ensure that Disney is held accountable and, therefore, kept informed.”

The combo moves are part of the all-out war DeSantis has started against the house Mickey Mouse built. His fight against Disney has raised his national profile ahead of speculation that he will announce a presidential bid this spring. He has also made it part of his war on wake as he makes the culture wars a centerpiece of his strategy.

DeSantis had hinted for weeks that such actions were imminent.

“There will be additional legislative action in Tallahassee that will nullify what they were trying to do with the 11th hour and then possibly, you know, arm the board with the ability to make sure this is done properly,” he said during a speech in Michigan earlier this month.

For weeks he has been speaking harshly to the company, telling Disney to “buckle up.” He also considered punching Disney in his wallet, imposing a new hotel tax and tolls on roads leading to the park.

Disney and DeSantis clashed as the company spoke out against the governor’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law — a state law that bans classroom discussions of sexual orientation and sex identity.

As part of that war, DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Florida legislature ended the self-governing privileges Disney World had held since 1967.

To remove Disney’s self-governing power, DeSantis appointed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board to replace the Disney-controlled Reedy Creek Improvement District and oversaw the development of Disney World.

Before the newly appointed board took control, Disney officials and the old board struck a deal that allowed the company to evade the new board’s control, using an obscure legal clause that controls King Charles III by name.

In addition, for the next 30 years, Disney has secured zoning, infrastructure and air rights approvals that the company may need if it chooses to expand its theme park — meaning it can do so without approval from DeSantis’s hand-picked board.

DeSantis and his team countered rumors that the governor had been outmaneuvered. DeSantis demanded a state investigation into the actions of the old administration.

And the new board appointed by DeSantis wants to exercise its authority over development at Disney World and the two cities controlled by the theme park giant.

The two towns in the Reedy Creek district where Disney’s park is located – Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista – have a combined population of just 53. All residents are believed to have close ties to Disney.

Some expect Disney to use its control over the two cities – which have city councils and mayors – to maintain authority over its theme parks.

The Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom are within the Bay Lake city limits, while Disney Springs is in Lake Buena Vista.

But the new resolution, seen by the Orlando Sentinelgives control of Disney development to DeSantis’ new Central Florida Tourism Oversight board.

“The authority of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District over comprehensive planning, zoning, land use regulations, environmental protection regulations, and plating and subdivision regulations shall govern the entire district, including within the jurisdictional boundaries of the City of Lake Buena Vista and the City of Bay Lake,” the statement said. resolution.

The proposal is on the agenda for the April 19 council meeting.

Disney shows no signs of backing down as both sides heat up the war of words and prepare for what is likely to be a long and costly legal battle.

CEO Bob Iger earlier this month accused DeSantis of being “anti-business and anti-Florida” at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting. He accused the governor of retaliation against the company.

Iger also told Time Magazine that he is willing to sit down with DeSantis.

“If the governor of Florida would like to meet with me to discuss all this, of course I would be happy to do so,” he said.

Disney World is the largest employer in central Florida, with nearly 75,000 employees and 36.2 million visitors by 2021, according to the Themed Entertainment Association.

DeSantis would say neither in his Monday morning radio interview if he were meeting Disney’s CEO.

“Ultimately, they need to understand that they won’t live by different rules than everyone else. I mean, that’s just the reality. And I think the fact that at the end they tried to make the secret arrangements, yes, they will fail. But the fact that he would try tells me they haven’t gotten the message yet,” he said when asked to sit down.

Disney earned a whopping $7.4 billion from its parks for the most recent quarter of fiscal 2022 — up 70 percent from a year earlier, as it recovered from COVID shutdowns.

The theme park is now charging for some of its previously free features, including the Genie+ app ($15) and parking ($30). Even the price of his iconic Mickey Mouse ears has increased by more than a third since 2021, from $29.99 to $39.99.

The company was drawing an average of 18 million visitors a year to Disney World before the pandemic — a room at the park’s low-cost hotel, Pop Century, costs about $168 today — more than $70 from 2013, when a room at the resort would cost $95. That is an increase of more than 77 percent.

Ticket prices at the park – now over $100 – have increased at about double the rate of inflation in the 2010s.

Disney World in Florida is located in what is called a special tax district known as Reedy Creek. The set-up allowed the company to govern itself as a de facto province – control over fire protection, policing, road maintenance and development planning.

Because of the deals Disney made with the old board, the new DeSantis board can’t do much more than maintain the roads and control basic infrastructure.

The deal Disney has made states that the provisions will remain in effect until “21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, King of England living at the date of this declaration.”

This ‘last survivor’ is the year-old Princess Lilibet of Sussex, who lives in California.

The so-called ‘Royal Clause’ is used by lawyers to circumvent rules against perpetual contracts. The British Royals were selected because information about their family tree is readily available and because the family generally has a “longer life expectancy,” according to law firm Bricketts.

Often used in connection with trusts and options to acquire property, the legal maneuver was created to circumvent perpetual laws, and to maximize the possible length of time that trusts in particular can remain in effect.

In this particular case, that period – if not destroyed – could be a significant number of years, with the youngest living descendant of Charles, Princess Lilibet, only a year old.