How Disney’s feud with DeSantis reignited over a last-ditch development deal
Disney’s long-running feud with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is entering a new phase as the Republican tees up fresh sanctions in response to the company’s maneuver to subvert state control over its self-governance district.
DeSantis revealed Monday that Florida’s GOP-controlled legislature will introduce a bill to void the 30-year development deal that effectively stripped the power of a newly installed state oversight board to oversee Disney’s special tax district.
The Florida governor will also look to revoke other privileges previously afforded to Disney within its self-governed district, such as rules that exempted the company’s monorail and transportation systems from external inspections, as The Post was first to report.
“We want to make sure that Disney lives under the same laws as everybody else,” DeSantis said at the press conference.
The Post has reached out to Disney for comment.
Tensions between DeSantis and Disney reignited after the state-controlled board discovered that the company had secured approval for the 30-year development deal from the now-defunct Reedy Creek Improvement District just before it was dissolved — a move that the governor has decried as an illegal effort to buck the will of the state legislature.
“What they tried to do is an embarrassment,” a senior administration source told The Post on Sunday. “The narrative the left is spinning is that Gov. DeSantis was outmaneuvered. But this is far from over, and he’s going to have the last laugh.”
Earlier this month, DeSantis also floated the possibility of fresh taxes targeting Disney hotels and property developments and tolls on roads near its Florida facilities.
“They can keep trying to do things, but ultimately, we’re going to win on every single issue involving Disney,” DeSantis said at an event at conservative Hillsdale College.
The public spat between DeSantis and the Mouse House had appeared to be dying down earlier this year, when state lawmakers approved the new oversight board designed to rein in Disney’s near-unilateral control over the special district that houses its theme parks.
Dubbed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, the five-member board was granted oversight power of the special tax district that Disney had controlled since 1967. DeSantis appointed all five board members.
But members of the Reedy Creek Improvement District board granted last-minute approval to Disney’s land development deal on Feb. 8 — one day before Florida’s House signed the bill formally establishing the new oversight board.
The deal effectively undercut the new board’s authority by granting Disney ongoing control over zoning, infrastructure and air rights within the district for the next few decades.
The development deal also included a provision blocking the district from using the image of Mickey Mouse or any of Disney’s “fanciful characters” in association with its property without company permission.
Disney purportedly believes the agreement met all state requirements because it was approved in a public hearing and twice advertised in the Orlando Sentinel newspaper last January before the meeting took place.
Nevertheless, DeSantis has ordered state authorities to conduct a “thorough review and investigation” into the deal’s approval.
“These collusive and self-dealing arrangements aim to nullify the recently passed legislation, undercut Florida’s legislative process and defy the will of Floridians,” DeSantis wrote in a letter to Florida chief inspector general Melinda Miguel earlier this month.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has been sharply critical of the DeSantis-led crackdown — arguing the governor had “decided to retaliate against us” and pursued methods that were “anti-business.”
But Iger tried to deflate rising tensions with the governor’s office last week.
“I do not view this as a going-to-mattresses situation for us,” Iger told Time magazine.
The Disney-DeSantis feud dates back to last year, when the company first drew his ire by publicly lobbying against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law.
Branded the “Don’t Say Gay” law by critics, the legislation bars teachers in the state from discussing gender identity or sexual orientation with students below fourth grade.
