DeSantis signed the law that strips Disney of the right to run its own district in Florida

It’s already the law. After months of debate in Tallahassee and in the media, Governor Ron DeSantis signed this morning law that deprives the Disney company of the right to self-government in the district in which it has its amusement parks, in central Florida.

The signing was made in a public ceremony at the Ready Creek Fire Station in Lake Buenavista, just outside the Disney District.

“Allowing a company to control its own government is bad policy, especially when that company makes decisions that affect an entire region. This law puts an end to the autonomous status of Disney, forcing Disney to live by the same rules we all live bymaking sure Disney pays its debts and taxes, like we all do,” DeSantis said.

For decades, Disney had had special status in Central Florida (one of the reasons the company decided to move to the state), where they could make minor decisions internally. Now a committee will make those decisions, but the difference is that it is the governor who now selects these five people from the committee.

To ensure less interference from Disney in the committee, the law determines that no member of the committee may have been linked to the company during the last three years.

The fight between DeSantis and Disney began with the Parental Rights Act, popularly known as “Don’t Say Gay,” which bans sex education in the state for children under eight, to unless parents specifically request it. Disney initially didn’t speak out against the law, but after a few weeks in which several of its employees threatened to strike unless the company opposed the legislation, Disney as a company came out to take on DeSantis.

When Disney criticized the law and the governor, DeSantis asked lawmakers to craft a new rule to change the playing field for the Disney District in the state. Since then, there has been a highly publicized struggle, culminating in the signing of the law this morning.

Having a self-governing district allowed Disney to issue its own bonds, change zoning rules, its own fire department, and infrastructure services, among other benefits. The law doesn’t necessarily change all that, leaving your financial and debt skills intact. But the problem is that they will no longer be Disney members making the decisions, but people targeted by DeSantis.

Disney had promised Florida a futuristic city in its neighborhood, with state-of-the-art public transportation, which never materialized. On the contrary, the last change happened in 1982 when they built the last of the theme parks.

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