Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference in the cupboard room on the close of the 2023 Florida legislative session Friday, May 5, 2023.
Alicia Devine | Tallahassee Democrat via AP
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed laws that effectively voids the event agreements Disney struck shortly before the governor selected a recent board of supervisors to oversee the corporate’s Orlando parks.
The event deals are at the middle of the newest battle in a yearlong war between Disney, considered one of Florida’s largest employers, and DeSantis, a Republican who is probably going gearing up for a 2024 presidential campaign.
The governor’s office confirmed the bill signing in a press release that contained no other information or remarks on the laws.
The bill, which passed out of the state’s Republican-majority Legislature only a day earlier, follows a vote by DeSantis’ board members to invalidate the deals, claiming they were struck unlawfully. Disney says the contracts were crafted to assist lock in its long-term development plans amid escalating tension with DeSantis and his allies.
Members of each parties, including Trump, have criticized DeSantis’ fight with Disney.
“This feud between DeSantis and Disney is insane,” Linda Stewart, a Democrat who represents Florida’s thirteenth Senate district, told CNBC. “Daily it looks like there’s one other way that they wish to attempt to make things tougher for Disney, but all they’re doing is costing taxpayers money to rent lawyers to go defend what they’re doing.”
Stewart voted against the recent laws.
Disney sued DeSantis and the board members last week, alleging a campaign of political retaliation led by the governor. The board countersued days later.
Disney declined to comment.
The feud began greater than a 12 months ago, after Disney denounced a Republican-backed Florida bill limiting classroom discussion about sexual orientation and gender ideology, branded “Don’t Say Gay” by critics.
Shortly after, DeSantis and his allies moved to dissolve the special tax district that had allowed Walt Disney World to essentially govern its own operations for the reason that Sixties.
The 25,000-acre area, formerly called the Reedy Creek Improvement District, was ultimately kept intact — nevertheless it was given a recent name, and its five-member board was replaced with figures picked by DeSantis.
In March, the brand new board accused Disney of crafting Eleventh-hour deals that undercut its power. Disney says its contacts were forged publicly, and that they do not undermine the board’s oversight of the district’s operations.
The corporate’s federal civil lawsuit asks the court to “stop the State of Florida from weaponizing the ability of presidency to punish private business.”
DeSantis signed the bill voiding Disney’s deals on the ultimate day of Florida’s 2023 legislative session. The governor, who was resoundingly reelected within the November midterms, is seen as former President Donald Trump’s top potential rival for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
The Legislature, which bears Republican supermajorities in each chambers, churned out bills that helped enact DeSantis’ wide-ranging conservative agenda — with a concentrate on divisive cultural issues that would resonate in a Republican primary race.
DeSantis has kept up his attacks on Disney, at the same time as the drawn-out fight has led some Republicans to query his strategy.
Along with voiding the event deals, the Florida Legislature passed a measure that may have the state transportation department conduct inspections of Walt Disney World’s monorails. Stewart said Disney hasn’t had any major issues of safety with its monorail system since 2009, when an operator was killed after two of the vehicles collided. She called into query the timing of the brand new measure.
“It is so obvious that is about retaliation,” Stewart said.
Earlier this month, the state education board approved an expansion of the classroom bill that kicked off the feud with Disney.
