Disney didn’t have to do anything, but it insists that it should exercise its political activism on the streets of Florida. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis decided to strip it of all its tax privileges, a huge blow for a company already struggling with the consequences of its bad decisions.
The Reedy Creek District was a 25,000-acre, mostly Disney-owned area that gave it the power and freedom to manage the area as it saw fit. It effectively became its own kingdom within Florida. The area was in existence for many decades. However, it is now over thanks to Disney’s decision to challenge DeSantis in his “Parental rights in Education” bill.
Disney helped Democrats and activists to call it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. This name had no basis in reality and the company pledged to fight DeSantis in the name of protecting LGBT children from Republicans. The bill did not mention the word gay at all. It was intended to teach children about sexually-oriented concepts and hide any school activities from parents.
DeSantis advised Disney to stay away, but it was revealed that Bob Chapek, the then-Disney CEO, was under pressure from both inside the company and Democrat legislators. His resistance was overcome and he entered the corporation into the ring. DeSantis decided to remove Disney from its management of Reedy Creek.
He did.
DeSantis signed off on Monday his threat to Disney and took away all of the Reedy Creek special privileges. The bill also assures that Disney’s estimated $700,000,000 in debt will not be passed onto the taxpayer after the district is dissolution.
BREAKING: Gov. Ron DeSantis officially signs into law the stripping of Disney’s special privileges, appointing a state board, and ensuring debts are not transferred to taxpayers pic.twitter.com/sOh1h5NmOD
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) February 27, 2023
DeSantis stated that Disney came out against something that was actually just about protecting young children and making sure that students can go to school learning how to read, write, subtract, and not having to be told by a teacher that they can change their gender.”
This episode is a wake-up call for all woke corporations. At least, within Florida. DeSantis’ thoughts about how to deal with the extremist left are solidified.
DeSantis stated that “the old-guard corporate Republicanism simply isn’t up to the task.”
