The Walt Disney Company and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have been at odds for a while now. When Disney condemned the Parental Rights in Education law that the governor signed earlier this year, DeSantis threatened to repeal the Reedy Creek Improvement Act in retaliation. Now, DeSantis has made good on this threat.
The bill that would dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District (which is essentially Disney World’s own government) passed in the Florida Senate and House of Representatives this week. Today, the Florida governor took another step in the process of limiting Disney World’s self-governance.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed the bill to dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District, along with several other special districts in Florida, by June 2023. According to Associated Press News, “the measure does allow for the districts to be reestablished, leaving an avenue to renegotiate its future.”
Although many practical details about this process remain unknown, it seems that Disney World will lose some of the freedoms it has now as an essentially self-governing area.
The Orange and Osceola counties may be required to take on Disney World’s debts as part of the change. In addition, the counties could be responsible for certain services that Disney World currently funds on their own, such as maintaining roads and managing water and power supply.
We’ll continue to watch for more updates in this developing story, so stay tuned with AllEars.
How will this change affect Disney World?
Join the AllEars.net Newsletter to stay on top of ALL the breaking Disney News! You'll also get access to AllEars tips, reviews, trivia, and MORE! Click here to Subscribe!
This is the point that everyone seems to be missing. Disney pays 300 million every year to have the county sheriffs patrol officers come to Disney. This is a budget shortfall. So where will the city & county go to make up this lost budget? They’ll go to the property tax payers. The sales tax; the hotel tax. The consumer is always the one who loses in the end. We will pick up the bill. Now the counties are in charge of road construction? Imagine how long it would have taken for the new bridge to Epcot to be completed. Maybe 9 months tops for Disney to complete the Epcot Drive project: it would take years & years of work and permits for the county to do the same thing. And it wouldn’t be Disney quality.
What’s going to be sad is at some point someone will die from the lack of support for the Reedy Creek paramedics. We had a medical emergency in our hotel room at 3 in the morning at the boardwalk and had paramedics in our room in 9 minutes. I can’t imagine how long now it will take with the decreased services the governor of Florida is imposing. What a shame that government is interfering with business so much.