
Walt Disney Co. Loses Control of Walt Disney World’s District Privileges in Florida
By Movieguide® Contributor
On Monday, Walt Disney Co. lost its special corporate privilege that had provided it nearly full governing rights over the Reedy Creek Improvement District where Walt Disney World is located.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis cut Disney’s high level of control following a dispute last year over Disney’s response to a Florida parent’s rights law, nicknamed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The law limits sex-and-gender education to younger children.
Disney’s control over the district extends back to Disney World’s conception 55 years ago and granted the company power to tax, spend, plan, zone and generally govern the acreage surrounding the Florida theme park, even allowing the right to generate nuclear power, if necessary.
Disney was given these privileges to allow Walt Disney to create a truly functional Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT). Then-governor Haydon Burns called this idea “the greatest single announcement in the history of the state,” as he endowed Disney with these special privileges.
Fifty-five years later, the vision has not panned out as Disney or Burns hoped, with Reedy Creek being more of a corporate dictatorship than a utopian democracy of the future. The one-time plans for mass residential development never materialized, with only small pockets of land given to full-time residents.
While the EPCOT vision has long been abandoned, Florida has had no reason to repossess the privileges it had conceded to Disney until the company tried to force its opinion about the parenting bill onto representatives in the state, abusing its place of privilege and overstepping its jurisdiction.
As of Monday, Disney has officially lost their special powers in Reedy Creek, losing control over tax and improvement issues at Walt Disney World.
The new law renames the Reedy Creek district the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and will be run by board members nominated by the governor and approved by the state senate. The board members will have control over the district’s infrastructure and services, as well as taxing authority.
Movieguide® previously reported on Disney’s response to the parenting bill:
In a recent lawsuit, one Disney investor claims that the most magical place on earth took too great of a financial risk when they opposed Florida’s Parental Rights In Education bill, which mainstream media labeled the “Don’t Say Gay Bill.”
The investor, Kenneth Simeone, called on the Walt Disney Co. to reveal their internal records regarding their decision to oppose the bill.
The lawsuit argues that the loss of control over tax and improvement issues at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando came as result of their public opposition.
“The financial repercussions from Disney’s actions, and resulting harm to the company and its stockholders, have been swift and severe,” Simeone writes.