Some may want Ron DeSantis to talk to The Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger, but the Florida Governor would prefer to talk about him.
During a Newsmax interview Friday, DeSantis said he hadn’t talked to Iger, amid some comments defending that position and explaining why the “party is over” for Disney, which he contended didn’t live up to expectations set in 1967 when the Reedy Creek Improvement District was established.
“I haven’t, I mean, look, the way I viewed it was we had the skirmish last year. We said no self government. We implemented that consistent with what I said in the campaign. They’re not going to have their own government,” DeSantis said.
“They’re going to live under the same laws, they’re going to pay taxes and pay the debts and that’s where it was headed until Disney pulled this maneuver. We’re in a situation now, forget about all the issues involving that,” DeSantis added. “You can’t have a situation where the Legislature has spoken and one company just decides to contract out against the will of the people.”
“I think that they just have to understand the party is over for them. They had 60 years of privileges that no other corporation in America has had, whether it was appropriate at the time to get them there, I don’t know,” DeSantis said. “But I can tell you this when that deal was done, it was done that way.”
“Because Disney promised to build communities and actually build cities where people would be able to live and work and they never followed through on that promise.”
Florida’s most recent former Governor wishes constructive dialogue would ensue, meanwhile.
During a radio hit on WIOD, Rick Scott said governors have “got to figure out how to work with our companies. My goal is to sit down with people and find out: ‘How do you get things done?’”
“I got conservative things passed every year I was Governor,” he added. “So I think it’s important that every Governor in the country work with their business community to say, ‘How can we work together?’”
Scott went on to note that Disney is a leading economic engine in the state.
“I think half the people who come to Florida as tourists go to Disney … 25% of our sales tax is paid by tourists,” Scott said. “So it’s a big deal for our budget.”
“I hope that cooler heads are going to prevail and we get this resolved,” he added.
Scott’s Senate colleague Marco Rubio agrees.
“I think where it gets problematic in the eyes of some people is when you start creating the idea — and I’m not saying we’re there yet as a state — but the idea that somehow like if you run crossways with us politically, whoever is in charge, then you know, you wind up in the crosshairs of the Legislature for political purposes,” Rubio said.
“I do worry that if this happens too many times, businesses that are thinking about coming to Florida are saying, ‘Maybe we don’t want to go there because if we get into a firestorm with them politically, they’re going to come after our business again’,” Rubio added, saying that’s still a “hypothetical issue.”
U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California takes a similar position.
“This is a big employer inside Florida,” he added, in comments reported by Newsweek.
“I think the Governor should sit down with them. I don’t think the idea of building a prison next to a place where you bring your family is the best idea. I think it’d be much better if you sat down and solved the problems,” McCarthy continued.
Earlier this month, when discussing new legislation to wrestle control back from Disney, the Florida Governor suggested the state had every right to do what it wanted on land in the former Reedy Creek Improvement District.
“People are like, well, ‘What should we do with this land? Maybe create a state park? Maybe try to do more amusement parks,’” DeSantis said before adding the prison quip. “Somebody even said, ‘Maybe you need another state prison?’ Who knows? I just think that the possibilities are endless, and so that is now going to be analyzed to see what would make the most sense.”
The Disney prison isn’t happening, but other moves are.
The Governor signed legislation changing Disney’s special district in the wake of the company opposing 2022’s Parental Rights in Education law, leading to Disney filing a federal lawsuit against DeSantis and other state parties for a “targeted campaign of government retaliation.” DeSantis has signed more legislation Friday revoking deals Disney made before the RCID’s dissolution.
Meanwhile, the state-appointed Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board that replaced Reedy Creek plans to countersue Disney in state court. And the state is ready to inspect Disney’s monorail, in another punitive measure.
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