The new Ron DeSantis board warned Disney on Wednesday that it could surround the theme park with affordable housing and demand it pay its back taxes as the state continues to retaliate against the theme park for trying to thwart the governor’s authority .
“The bottom line is that Disney is running a prank worthy of Scrooge McDuck trying to circumvent Florida law,” said attorney David Thompson, who was hired by the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board to enforce legality. to investigate what Disney’s use of an obscure legal clause tied to King Charles III to outsmart DeSantis.
Wednesday’s hearing was yet another step the state is taking in its war against the home that Mickey Mouse built.
Martin Garcia, the chairman of the board appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to oversee Disney
DeSantis has led the war by destroying the “woke” culture he says is being instigated by Disney and vowing to take control of the theme park giant.
He has also threatened retaliation, including threatening to build prisons on land next to state-owned Disney World.
And board chairman Martin Garcia echoed the governor’s threats on Wednesday, warning Disney that they are looking at new options for the area, including developing affordable housing around the park.
“It’s really embarrassing what Disney was trying to do,” Garcia said. “At the moment, nothing is off the table.”
He warned that the five-member board could vote to monetize assets within the district to pay off outstanding debts ahead of schedule. That debt, estimated at $686 million, kept DeSantis from eliminating the district.
The law that created the district prevents the state from dissolving it without paying off its debt.
The board also said they would consider acquiring some Disney-owned land under eminent domain and banning the COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates Disney put in place during the pandemic.
The DeSantis board also alleged that Disney wrote the new ordinance that got the old Reedy Creek board to bypass their authority.
During the board meeting, attorneys for the board showed emails from Walt Disney World Resort chief attorney John McGowan claiming he was the drafter but wanted someone else’s name on the resolution due to “optics.”
“My name is currently at the top of the document as a draftsman,” McGowan wrote. “And I’m comfortable with my name on it, but from an optical point of view that’s not ideal and it would be better to have a non-Disney employee be the artist.”
Subsequent emails show that his name was removed from the final draft.
In addition, DeSantis and his allies also allege that Disney did not pay enough taxes because it undervalued its properties to get a lower rate.
The board threatens with back taxes, but it is unclear how much money is involved. The board also warned it could try to recoup the legal fees it had to spend fighting Disney’s power games.
A Florida state attorney said Disney “enlisted a prankster worthy of Scrooge McDuck to try to get around Florida’s law”
The board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District will meet again on April 26
The fighting has only just begun. DeSantis warned Monday that more was coming on his side.
And Garcia said Wednesday that the board has more policies planned in the future.
“Any meeting or any other meeting” will discuss a new policy, he warned.
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.
DeSantis appointed the new one Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board to replace the old Reedy Creek board governing the special tax district in which Disney theme parks are located.
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 allies are working on a one-two punch to counter that legal move.
At Wednesday’s Central Tourism Board meeting, attorney David Thompson outlined why he considers Disney’s move illegal, arguing that Disney had failed to properly notify the proposed changes before the old board approved them.
Disney points to the public notices it posted in local newspapers — as required by law — but Thompson argued that the company was missing another requirement: They didn’t send notices to other property owners in the Reedy Creek special tax district.
He also argues that, under Florida law, such an agreement can only be effected “if the district has put in place procedures for the adoption of such an agreement.” He says that didn’t happen.
And he pointed out that under Florida law, the government “cannot transfer their own powers to private parties.”
Board members ultimately decided to ask staff for a resolution they would consider at their April 26 meeting that would nullify the agreements that had retained Disney’s authority prior to its takeover by the new board.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has announced that the state legislature will nullify Disney’s legal maneuvers that effectively stripped its new board of directors of its authority
Disney is expected to respond and take the next shot in what is expected to be a long, drawn-out legal war.
DeSantis, who is expected to announce a 2024 presidential bid later this summer, shrugged.
“If Disney objects to that, then so be it, we’re going to do what’s right,” he said during a performance in South Carolina on Wednesday.
“We’ll make sure we keep them in their pen somehow. Don’t worry about that,’ he remarked.
For his part, DeSantis stated Monday that the state legislature, controlled by his party, will invalidate Disney’s legal maneuvers.
“They thought they could make some sort of developmental deal that would essentially invalidate everything we did and give them control for this forever. Well that won’t work. That’s not going to fly,” he said.
He said legislation is in the works to overturn that agreement.
“One of Florida’s statutes gives the legislature the power to revoke development agreements in exactly these cases,” he said at the news conference.
And so I’ve worked with both House and Senate leaders. There is a bill that will be introduced in the Florida legislature that will ensure that the agreements allegedly entered into by Disney are repealed and the will of the people is established,” he noted.
“We will not have one company serving as its own government,” he declared.