“Florida Ends the Corporate Kingdom” — Massive Update on Disney’s Reedy Creek District

The end of Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District has finally arrived.

Earlier this year, Florida’s legislature passed a law that would change certain parts of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, primarily when it comes to the selection of the Board of Supervisors that control the District and Disney’s relative power over that. But now there’s been an important update.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has officially signed the bill that will CHANGE key parts of the Reedy Creek District. DeSantis titled a video shared via Twitter about this change “Florida Ends the Corporate Kingdom.”

Under this new bill, the Board of Supervisors for the District (which is currently selected by the majority property owner in the District, a.k.a. Disney) will be replaced by members entirely selected by Governor DeSantis and confirmed by the Florida Senate.

Many had suggested that the bill dissolving the RCID that was passed last year was an act of retaliation against Disney’s comments against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill (what critics called “Don’t Say Gay”) and DeSantis seemed to touch on that during the event.

According to WESH, DeSantis shared, “We had a little bit of a tussle last year over school legislation…If you’re going that way as a corporation, those are not the values we want to promote in the state of Florida.” He also discussed Disney being treated differently than other companies, and shared, “we believed being joined at the hip with this one California-based company was not sustainable.”

The law indicated that it would become effective immediately upon being signed into law, so that means it should now be effective.

Due to this bill, the RCID now has a new name — The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. Note, however, that the District will still have two years to continue doing business under the RCID name so they can make changes to legal and financial documents among other things.

The Governor has already announced his picks for the new Board of Supervisors according to The Orlando Sentinel. His choices are as follows:

• “Bridget Ziegler, a member of the Sarasota County School Board and a supporter of Moms for Liberty;
• Seminole County attorney Michael Sasso;
• attorney Martin Garcia of Tampa as chairman;
• Ron Peri, CEO of The Gathering USA, a ministry that focuses on faith and culture;
• and Clearwater attorney Brian Aungst.”

During the media event held for the signing of this bill, DeSantis indicated that in his opinion the new Board has lots of business, legal, and government experience. Reportedly these individuals will have their first meeting a week from Wednesday (WESH).

Anika Hope, a reporter with WESH news, shared a paper that DeSantis’ team provided to the media at the event. That paper alleges that Florida has placed the District under a “state receivership” to begin a “new era of accountability and transparency.”

It also outlines some of the changes allegedly being made with the District, highlighting that the change “imposes Florida law so that Disney is no longer given preferential treatment.”

This is the paper that Governor DeSantis’s team provided to media at the Reedy Creek press event this morning. pic.twitter.com/st0OEDeBaA

— Anika Hope (@AnikaHopeTV) February 27, 2023

During the media event held for the signing, DeSantis said that part of the changes will ensure that Disney is paying their fair share of taxes.

Though this is a point DeSantis and others have mentioned above, Disney has paid property taxes to both Osceola and Orange County each year and has actually been one of the “largest property taxpayer(s) in Orange County.” According to the Orlando Sentinel, Disney paid “$296.2 million in property taxes for its theme parks in tax years 2015 through 2020” to Orange County (though the Orlando Sentinel reported that, in 2021, Disney was awarded a $7.8 million refund for tax years 2015 through 2019).

During the media event for the signing, DeSantis also said something to the effect of “what’s good for SeaWorld is good for Disney,” which seems to emphasize more of his claims that this will put Disney on an even playing field with other parks in Florida.

DeSantis also discussed how there is a desire to make Disney what Walt always envisioned. He said that when individuals lose their way they need someone to tell them the “truth.” This is an interesting comment mainly because these individuals he has appointed will not be on the Board of the Walt Disney Company and will not really have creative control over Disney’s decisions.

Instead, they’ll only be on the board of the new District that controls decisions over the land on which Disney operates. Those decisions would more be related to the District’s bond debt, land use, regulations for emergency services provided to the Disney parks, etc. So it’s unclear just how much their decisions could turn Disney into something “Walt envisioned.”

It is also interesting since Reedy Creek was created back in 1967 as a result of some of the things Walt had been concerned about in Anaheim. According to the Wall Street Journal, historians indicated that Walt took issue with some “seedy hotels” that had popped up around Disneyland, that’s why he wanted control over “who their neighbors would be in Florida.” But Walt ultimately passed away before Reedy Creek was officially created.

In the media event, DeSantis also indicated that he’d like to give control of the area over to the local county at some point if possible. He also stressed that there would be no additional tax burden to locals in Central Florida.

Under the new bill, the District will have some new responsibilities, like filing certain reports. The district is also losing some of its power, like the ability to potentially create a nuclear power plant.

You can see the full press conference below.

Florida Ends the Corporate Kingdom https://t.co/N7lJA1BSXb

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) February 27, 2023

We’ll keep an eye out for more changes and let you know what we see. Stay tuned for more news.

Tell us your thoughts on the Reedy Creek situation below.

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