Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Friday that cancels Disney’s agreements with its outgoing board, as the Governor also said he is confident his appointed Disney World governing board will prevail in its lawsuit against Disney.
DeSantis signed SB 1604 Friday after the Legislature passed the bill Thursday evening. Tucked into SB 1604 was a DeSantis-backed amendment that retroactively rolled back agreements Disney made with its old Reedy Creek Improvement Board in the weeks before the state fired those members and DeSantis appointed his own board members in their place.
“The Legislature acted appropriately,” DeSantis said Friday hours before he signed the bill. “Make no mistake about it. The reason why the Legislature had to act was not because of anything we did. It was basically born out of Disney’s arrogance, that they would be able to subcontract around the duly enacted laws of the state of Florida. That’s wrong.”
The Disney agreements are also at the center of a new lawsuit.
The state-appointed Central Florida Tourism Oversight board sued Disney in Orange Circuit Court this week, saying Disney “covertly cobbled together a series of eleventh hour deals” with the outgoing Disney-picked board before the state took the board over. Disney’s agreements took away the new board’s power, board members said.
Responding to that suit following Sine Die, DeSantis said, “I believe they will win because I think that this development agreement was fatally flawed.”
Some Democrats and a few Republicans have cautioned DeSantis about picking a fight with Disney, the largest single taxpayer in Central Florida and its biggest employer with 75,000 workers. Disney CEO Bob Iger called it “anti-Florida” and “anti-business” for the Governor to target Disney after all the jobs and tourists Disney World has brought to the state over the past 50 years.
DeSantis, who many predict will run for President, has used his cultural war platform to gain national attention.
He brought up his fight with Disney again in his Friday morning remarks.
“We fought very hard for children. We have a fundamental disagreement in this state, in terms of what we think is appropriate for children and what the people in Burbank, California, think is appropriate for children,” DeSantis said. “It’s wrong to be sexualizing these kids. it’s wrong to have gender ideology, and telling kids that they may have been born in the wrong body.”
DeSantis did not mention Disney’s federal lawsuit filed against him in his Friday remarks.
Disney is suing DeSantis and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight board members in federal lawsuit that accuses officials of retaliating against the company for exercising its freedom of speech when Disney opposed the state’s Parental Rights in Education measure, known by critics as “Don’t Say Gay” law.
The post Gov. DeSantis signs bill targeting Disney agreement, predicts Disney will lose in state court appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..
