Central Florida Lawmakers Advance Bill To Reverse Ron DeSantis’ Takeover Of Disney Theme Park District Board

A group of Florida state legislators voted on Friday to move forward with a bill that would reverse Governor Ron DeSantis’ successful effort last year to strip the Walt Disney Co. of control of a special district that oversees the company’s theme park properties.

But the bill has long odds in getting very far in the Republican-controlled Florida legislature.

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That said, Sen. Linda Stewart, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Orange County, said that the bill “begins the conversation” by saying that the process to replace the board “was rushed.”

“We are paying the price for that rushed decision,” Stewart said, citing the exodus last year of dozens of staffers who worked at the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

“There are just things out there that are falling apart,” she said. “This is not the way that we should be treating our Disney people,” noting the company’s influx of tax dollars.

She also said that the board members “simply don’t have enough experience with how to deal with local government.”

The voice vote was of lawmakers in the Orange County delegation, which is dominated by Democrats.

Several Orange County lawmakers voted against the repeal bill, expressing doubt that it will get anywhere in the legislature. Rep. Douglas Bankson, a Republican, said that he was open to looking at improvements, but was skeptical of repeal. He called Disney’s previous control of Reedy Creek a “mini-Vatican.”

“We need to have an equal footing for all our players in central Florida,” he said.

Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat, said that she wanted to see local officials on the board. The members of the newly named Central Florida Tourism Oversight District were picked by DeSantis last year, after the state legislature voted to reconstitute the district. The district was formed in 1967, at the time that Disney was developing its property, and had operated since then as a kind of self-government, with the company effective controlling its board. Disney is far and away the largest landowner within the district.

A federal judge is expected to rule soon on whether to allow Disney’s lawsuit against DeSantis and his hand-picked board to move forward. The company sued last spring, claiming that DeSantis’ actions were retaliation in violation of the First Amendment after Disney came out against parental rights legislation, known by detractors as the “don’t say gay” bill.

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