Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has taken his feud with Disney on the road, telling a crowd in Smyrna, Georgia, that “there’s more to come” in the fight for control in Reedy Creek.
On Thursday, DeSantis delivered a speech at Adventure Outdoors, touted as “the actual largest gun store in the world,” a stop on his ongoing book tour.
There, he discussed his impressive record in Florida, on issues many conservatives in America hold dear.
DeSantis:
Now there’s a new sheriff in town.
We’ve taken away their self governing status.
There’s a lot of little back and forths going on now with the state taking control, but rest assured, you know, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
There’s more to come in that regard. pic.twitter.com/Yecj0JHDhp— Showcase of Wishes (@ShowcaseWishes) March 31, 2023
Toward the end of his talk, he brought up Disney and the status of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, formerly known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which, for decades, enjoyed a self-governing status in the Sunshine State.
As American Wire News reported, the governor boldly declared to Disney “there’s a new sheriff in town” following the passage of legislation that stripped the entertainment behemoth of its Florida perks.
DeSantis set about appointing a handpicked group of conservatives to a new board tasked with ensuring that Disney will now pay their “fair share of taxes” and honor their debts.
But as he was making his picks, the old board made a sneaky move. It transferred all its power to Disney, invoking a so-called “Royal loophole” that cements the arrangement for “21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, king of England living as of the date of this declaration.”
Disney dodges DeSantis' new ruleshttps://t.co/nMTQXI3ote
— American Wire News (@americanwire_) March 31, 2023
To put that into perspective, the current “last survivor” is the one-year-old daughter of Harry and Meghan, Princess Lilibet of Sussex.
In other words, if the media giant has its way, the power over the district will forever be in Disney’s hands, essentially relieving the newly-established board of its authority.
“We’re going to have to deal with it and correct it,” said board member Brian Aungst Jr. “It’s a subversion of the will of the voters and the Legislature and the governor. It completely circumvents the authority of this board to govern.”
In response to the move, DeSantis’s office issued a statement, claiming “these agreements may have significant legal infirmities that would render the contracts void as a matter of law.”
“We are pleased the new governor-appointed board retained multiple financial and legal firms to conduct audits and investigate Disney’s past behavior,” DeSantis spokesperson Taryn Fenske said in the statement.
In Smyrna, the governor indicated that he isn’t about to throw in the towel.
(Video: YouTube)
“There’s a lot of little back-and-forths going on now with the state taking control, but rest assured, you know, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” he said. “There’s more to come in that regard.”
DeSantis referred to the genesis of his war with the Magic Kingdom — his Parental Rights in Education legislation that prohibited the discussion of gender and sexual identity to students in the third grade and below.
“We’ve also drawn a very firm line in the sand against imposing things like gender ideology in our schools, and it is just inappropriate for a teacher to be telling a student that they may have been born in the wrong body,” he said. “It’s inappropriate to be telling them their gender is a choice.”
He acknowledged that he “got a lot of flack from the left and the media and even got flack from a company that some people have heard of in Florida named Disney,” he continued.
“But ultimately, you know, my job is not to kowtow to some woke corporation in Burbank, California,” DeSantis stated. “My job is to stand up for the children of my state.”
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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