Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political allies overseeing Disney’s special taxing district threatened on Wednesday to hike taxes, raise utility rates and develop land around the entertainment giant’s Central Florida theme parks as retribution for the company’s efforts to avoid a state takeover.
In a meeting full of harsh words for one of the state’s largest private employers, board members accused Disney of engaging in a covert, yet legally flawed attempt to take over the district’s powers and thwart DeSantis’ power grab and vowed it would not stand.
“It really is shameful what Disney tried to do,” board chairman Martin Garcia said.
The comments echoed recent criticism from DeSantis, who on Monday vowed swift punishment against Disney and suggested a prison or competing theme park could be built on the land around the company’s vast Orlando-area footprint.
The latest escalation follows DeSantis’ move earlier this year to take over the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the special taxing district that for half a century gave Disney control over the land around its Central Florida theme parks, and install his political allies on the district’s board of supervisors. However, Disney in February reached agreements with the outgoing board that seemed to render the body powerless to control the entertainment giant.
Garcia said that the agreements went unmentioned by a representative for Disney when the two sides met soon after DeSantis appointed the new board. In addition to Garcia, a Tampa lawyer whose firm has donated to DeSantis’ political committee, the governor also appointed the wife of the state Republican Party’s chairman and a former pastor who has suggested that drinking water is turning people gay.
“Our board truly wished to work with Disney,” Garcia said. “Instead, the corporation decided that compromise was out of the…
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