Quotes from Disney's lawsuit against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District

Apr 26, 2023 in "The Walt Disney Company"

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Team Disney Orlando

Posted: Wednesday April 26, 2023 1:00pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

The Walt Disney Company's 77-page lawsuit against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his entire Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board contains a full history of the dispute between the entertainment giant and the state of Florida, and is the first time we have heard it in detail from Disney's perspective.

It is a compelling read and provides great insight into Disney's thinking over the past couple of years in dealing with an ever-increasing hostile Florida Governor. If you don't have time to read the entire filing, here are some of the notable points as presented by Disney.

"Disney expressed its opinion on state legislation and was then punished by the State for doing so."

"State leaders have not been subtle about their reasons for government intervention. They have proudly declared that Disney deserves this fate because of what Disney said. This is as clear a case of retaliation as this Court is ever likely to see."

"Disney now is forced to defend itself against a State weaponizing its power to inflict political punishment."

"In America, the government cannot punish you for speaking your mind."

"On March 30, State Representative Spencer Roach disclosed for the first time that the Legislature was considering dissolving RCID and announced, 'If Disney wants to embrace woke ideology, it seems fitting that they should be regulated by Orange County.' Governor DeSantis had been orchestrating the move behind the scenes. As he recounts it in his memoir, "I needed to be sure that the Legislature would be willing to tackle the potentially thorny issue involving the state's most powerful company. I asked the House Speaker, Chris Sprowls, if he would be willing to do it, and Chris was interested. 'OK, here's the deal,' I told him. 'We need to work on this in a very tight circle, and there can be no leaks. We need the element of surprise—nobody can see this coming.'"

"House Bill 9B, like Senate Bill 4C, was a law designed to target Disney and Disney alone. It shifted the power to select the District's board from the District's landowners, including its majority landowner, Disney, to the Governor—to enable him to punish Disney for its protected speech about House Bill 1557. In comments to reporters on February 8, 2023, Governor DeSantis said of House Bill 9B: 'There's a new sheriff in town and that's just the way it's going to be.'"

"Having exhausted all other options, Disney is left with no choice but to bring this complaint asking the Court to stop the State of Florida from weaponizing the power of government to punish private business."

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mkt3 hours ago

I already said aligned, don’t let me pull out any more MBA buzzwords

JoeCamel22 hours ago

Waaa? No flywheels?

mkt23 hours ago

I'd take it as an indication of infrastructure improvements aligned to potential new construction. Similar to the road construction and electrical infrastructure put in place across town before Epic Universe was announced.

AJFireman1 day ago

It was sent to the Palm Springs Air Museum for an interior restoration. There were many articles after D23 when that happened. Here is the article posted to the Company website and yes its open to the public. Also the PS Air Museum just made a post about it 6 days ago on their social media accounts. https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-announces-restoration-and-recreation-of-the-interior-of-walt-disneys-plane-to-its-1960s-design/ Here are some pics of the interior stripped. Couldnt find anything about how far along they are with the restoration. https://palmspringsairmuseum.org/restorations/

JKick951 day ago

Right. That makes sense. I was just curious to whether or not some comments should be read into as a positive sign of good things to come. For example yesterday RCES commented “property expansions are coming” and therefore their organization is concerned and partnering with outside agencies. The board and/or district administrator (I forgot specifically what was said) kind of said something along the same lines.

mkt1 day ago

They likely know at a high level what they are as well as projections of the impacts to the district in order to allow them to prepare. But I doubt that they’re sharing WDI concept art, simulations, moodboards, renderings, etc with the board that not long ago was actively working against Disney.

Monorail_Red_771 day ago

When Walt's Plane was moved from WDW over to CA for the last D23 event. I wondered what would happen to it after the exterior refurb, etc. Well a few days ago I came across a vlogger doing a video on a random Air Museum and surprisingly Walt's Plane is now on loan to the Palm Springs Air Museum. on the Palm Springs Air Museum site it is listed simply as Grumman G-159 Gulfstream. But, the video shows the plane on exhibit outside and then shows some of the same interior items from D23 also on display.

Rosso111 day ago

I would imagine they need to be very much in the loop with Disney’s plans. Most of the infrastructure for major projects begins first with Reedy Creek. For example if the rumors are true much of the reason for all of the work on Floridian Way over the last few years is because Disney plans to develop more land north of the Grand Floridian. Reddy Creek needs to know these things in order to allocate time and funds for these projects.

JKick952 days ago

How much about Disneys plans do they know? Should we take their comments as a positive of things to come?

Stripes2 days ago

There was a lot of focus in the meeting on Disney’s plans to significantly increase investment and that these increased investments are going to require significant infrastructure projects to meet the needs of these Disney investments. The district administrator stressed that the district needs to prepare. RCES (a Disney subsidiary) also mentioned that they have been making changes to staffing structure and bulking up to prepare for Disney’s “upcoming property expansions.”

Batman'sParents2 days ago

There is a budget workshop on August 24, 2024.

Batman'sParents2 days ago

Today is the first time the Board has gone over the proposed 2025 Millage Rates. There is a lot of talk regarding investment in the district by taxpayers like Disney, Disney Springs operators, and hotel operators and the conversations they are having with them. Given the ongoing and future investments needed in the district, in terms of setting the operating millage rate, there appears to be some support for option 1 and option 2: Option 1: Set the Proposed Millage Rate to 14.40 mills. (Debt Service 4.17 mills/Operating 10.23 mills) This raises the Debt Service as needed and raises the Operating millage to fund a 5% increase in expenditures over the Fiscal Year 2023 millage rate. Option 2: Set Proposed Millage Rate to 13.90 mills. (Debt Service 4.17 mills/Operating 9.73 mills) This raises the Debt Service rate as needed and allocates the remaining millage to Operating. This returns the millage rate to the same rate as Fiscal Year 2023. The members of the Board were stressing this is not the final set rate and it can be lower. There appears to be more of a consensus that they want a lower rate, but want all available options. There was a slight hesitation between the members of the Board in choosing what options to set, notably, Board Members Barakat and Aungst were in more in favour of option 1, and board members Peri, Ziegler, and Mateer were more in favour of option 2. After taking a vote to adopt option 1 failed by a vote of two to three, they adopted option 2. BOS Packet: https://www.oversightdistrict.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/BOS-Meeting-7-24-24-Draft-Agenda-Packet-PUBLIC.pdf The proposed rates and options are on the second to last page.

StripesJun 18, 2024

What? The new development agreement is based on the existing 2020 Comprehensive plan. There’s just a blurb in there that the district and Disney will amend the agreement in order to give Disney even more development rights once the new comprehensive plan is effective.

mktJun 18, 2024

They are not. And the politization of day to day is affecting morale across the other civil servants. I personally know of two ex-RCID/current-CFTOD employees that are taking an early retirement and starting the same job with a different private or public sector enterprise in the area.