The Florida House is poised to follow the state Senate’s lead and vote to abolish the Walt Disney Company’s autonomous governing zone on Thursday, Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls told National Review on Wednesday.
“We’ll officially pass it off the floor tomorrow,” said Sprowls, who called the measure “long overdue” in an interview.
“You have a company like Disney, who takes this special power and privileges that have been granted to them by the people and by the taxpayers. To use that power and privilege to mislead the public, on laws that are being discussed and passed in the legislature is wildly inappropriate,” continued Sprowls. He predicted that the legislation would sail through the House with “overwhelming” support from the Republican caucus, which holds a majority in the chamber.
The Florida Senate voted 23-16 on Wednesday to rescind Disney’s 50-year-old "independent special district" status after Governor Ron DeSantis expressed support for the effort in a Tuesday press conference.
The bill would dismantle the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a special municipal body created in 1967 to accommodate Disney World – the sprawling 27,000-acre property located in Central Florida near Orlando, which includes four theme parks, two water parks, a sports complex, hotels, stores, and restaurants.
The district, comprising 19 properties including those owned by Disney, is self-governing and sets its own regulations, including building codes and rules on land-use, utilities, transportation, emergency services, and environmental services. Crucially, it has exempted Disney from several taxes and fees, saving the company millions of dollars annually. Disney World employs 80,000 people in Florida and contributes $5.8 Billion annually to the local economy when operating at full capacity.
Per the bill, oversight over Disney's properties would be transferred to the Orange and Osceola Counties in Florida. The bill would also affect five other special districts across the state, though none as large as Disney World. According to the bill, Disney could seek to re-establish the district.
DeSantis announced Tuesday that he had convened a special session of the state legislature for the sole purpose of passing the bill. Following its passage in the Senate, he thanked legislative leaders for "stepping up" to approve the bill, which he called "very important."
The measure comes after an escalating series of disputes between the DeSantis Administration and Disney.
Last month, under pressure from employees and corporate clients, the company criticized the enactment of the DeSantis-backed Parental Rights in Education Act – which bars lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity below Grade 3 and would allow parents to sue school districts for objectionable classroom content – and announced it would suspend political donations in the state.
In explaining why he waited to speak out against the bill until it had already passed the legislature, Disney CEO Bob Chapek claimed that the company had been lobbying against the bill behind the scenes as it moved through the legislature. But Florida Republicans told National Review that no such lobbying campaign occurred.
The company stated that it wished to use its influence as "an opportunity to do good," a statement heavily criticized by DeSantis and Florida Republicans. Separately, Florida is moving to remove an exemption for Disney from Senate Bill 7072, a law signed by DeSantis last May to protect Floridians from being censored by social media platforms.
Critics of the legislature’s move on Reedy Creek — even those who support the parental rights bill that first spurred conflict between the Florida GOP and Disney — argue that such a decision would set a poor precedent, threaten the Sunshine State’s business climate, and result in a costly, overcomplicated transition. Sprowls defended the decision on its merits.
“I think that Disney did an unprecedented thing in taking their sort of taxpayer granted special privileges and power, and they weaponized it to mislead the public about about the law,” said Sprowls.
“We went back and looked at it, we found out that, you know, since 1968, there was only six special districts that were treated differently. And of course, you know, Disney’s was the only one that’s granted to a corporation,” added the speaker, who also said that he had introduced bills in the past to review the arrangement between Disney and the state.
Florida currently has 1,844 special districts, 1,288 of which are “independent” like Disney. Orlando International Airport and the Daytona International Speedway fall into this category.
Sprowls likened the bill to the legislature’s focus on reducing corporate handouts in the state, and noted that Florida remains one of the most attractive places to do business in the United States. He argued that the Florida GOP’s recent behavior vis-a-vis Disney was consistent with conservative governing principles, but did mark a trend he expects to increasingly guide Republican politics.
“I think it’s a trend. I do think that it’s more consistent though, with where we are philosophically. I mean, there’s a difference between, you know, free markets, being free market and pro-corporation,” said Sprowls. “I hope it will be a trend that states will put their people first, and I think Florida is a good example of being able to do that and being wildly successful.”
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