Florida Governor Ron DeSantis steps up his battle with Disney and will direct legislators to discuss the termination of Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District

Posted: Tuesday April 19, 2022 10:37am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

In a press conference today, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has escalated his offensive action toward Disney and has announced plans to terminate Walt Disney World's Reedy Creek Improvement District.

DeSantis said during the press conference that the Florida state legislator will discuss this week the termination of all special districts created prior to 1968. Disney's Reedy Creek District was created in 1967 ahead of the construction of Walt Disney World.

The creation of the Reedy Creek Improvement District in 1967 allowed Disney the luxury of establishing its own independent government that handles many aspects of the Walt Disney World property, including emergency services, infrastructure, and construction permitting. It remains unclear how the elimination of Reedy Creek could actually be implemented and how Disney would respond.

Speaking in The Villages retirement community, DeSantis said, "I am announcing today that we are expanding the call of what they are going to be considering this week. And so yes, they will be considering their congressional map. But they also will be considering termination of all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968. And that includes the Reedy Creek Improvement District."

This latest move follows escalating tensions between DeSantis and Disney CEO Bob Chapek regarding Disney's opposition to Florida's "Don't Say Gay Bill."

Disney has suspended all political donations in the state of Florida in response to the bill.

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lazyboy97o1 day ago

Just because they’re currently rubber stamping doesn’t make it any less corrupt.

MisterPenguin1 day ago

Well, there you go. A denial by the Board. Can we have our perks back? -Firefighters et. al No. -Board.

Dranth1 day ago

WHAT? You mean he wasn't being honest? How can I go on knowing he was full of it?

Chi841 day ago

Good luck with that.

Dranth1 day ago

Personally I am still waiting for Universals special district to have the Governor appoint members instead of them all being Universal employees. Wouldn't want him to be a hypocrite for going against everything he said about RCID right before the new one for Uni was approved. I'm sure he has just been busy and he will call a special session and get it done any day now!

castlecake2.01 day ago

I read it and have also attended several district meetings. The original batch he chose were all trying to prove a point while the newer appointees are more focused on actual gouvernement business

Disstevefan11 day ago

The worst thing I remember was CFTOD took away perks employees had when it was RCID.

MR.Dis1 day ago

Could some one please remind me of any request that Disney has made that the board has denied, as far as I know there has not been one request denied. So no real effect on how WDW has been run since the change. The only pain Disney has had in the past several years if the constant over evaluations by County Assessor office of WDW properties. From what I have read, every single challenge Disney has made has been upheld. Yet the Assessor office continues with their crusade to make Disney pay more. Just to remind everyone Disney is already the single biggest tax payer in the county.

Chi841 day ago

It’s not because there’s no reason for him to pretend to hate Disney now.

wdw71fan1 day ago

I'm guessing you didn't read the entire article. Two brand new Desantis appointees are on the board now. Business as usual.

castlecake2.01 day ago

Good riddance, now hopefully the district can get back to actually doing their job

DCBaker1 day ago

According to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District website, Brian Aungst Jr. and Bridget Ziegler are no longer listed as current members of the Board of Supervisors. Their spots have been filled by Matt Ravenscroft and David Woods, who were recently appointed by Governor DeSantis.

UNCgolf8 days ago

I'm sure a few do, but it's very uncommon. As an attorney, I don't know anyone that works at a non-PI firm that does public advertising like bus, TV, or billboard ads. I think business journals are a bit different and you're probably more likely to see something there if they handle something specific to that field, but I still think that's relatively rare.