Besides Disney who do you think is the other party to the agreement? Who else do you think the district serves besides Disney? Whose interests beyond Disneys do you think the district should be concerned with?
There are small portions of RCID land owned by entities other than Disney. Of course, Disney owns the overwhelming majority of the land, but what I'm getting at is that there should be guardrails in place that prevent Disney from having an arrangement in place where the board is legally obligated to sign off on projects Disney wishes to do. Interests are different than obligations.
Universal doesn’t do development review for new projects. The Villages don’t do development review for new projects. Even the Disneyland Resort doesn’t do development review for certain new projects.
This isn’t something new or different.
In my opinion, none of that is appropriate. The only reason I tend to focus on the RCID/CFTOD scheme is that this is an RCID thread.
Well the legislature isn’t expecting further legislation any time soon on this matter according to the Florida Senate President. But more importantly, what possible law could they enact without violating the contracts clause of the Florida Constitution and the United States Constitution?
I don't think they can, but that doesn't mean they won't try and take their chances in court. That's one of the many problems with politicians of today; they do things they know are almost certainly unconstitutional, but do it anyway so the law can be in effect at least temporarily, score the political points, then blame the courts and further rile their base when it gets struck down. I can name several examples from both sides of the aisle, but I'd rather not let the conversation drift off.
Oh, no!! All those pour souls living in The District forced to abide by Disney's authoritarian rule!!!!!
This is all giant Whataboutism.
Whether it's the original RCID district, or the new one, or all the other Districts in Florida.... none of that matters.
The governor and legislature forced an unconstitutional rewriting of RCID rule in order to punish and silence Disney.
Nothing else matters.
It seems like what you're getting at here is: conversation over! Let's close the thread! Because the legislature did what it did, there is nothing left to talk about.
Yeah, we can rejoice or wring our hands at Disney's power play to stop them. But, they wouldn't have had to do anything if it weren't for unconstitutional overreach of DeSantis and company.
Where was all this concern for how the RCID was operating before the Bill of Contention? How much time did you spend thinking about the sweetheart deal Disney had with the RCID?
But now you care?
Actually, and I'm probably in the minority here, I did spend a considerable amount of time over my decades-long career with the company thinking about RCID, and much of that time was spent thinking about how one company shouldn't have so much quasi-governmental power.
Did I write to my state representative or state senator about it though? Hell no, I wasn't trying to get fired.
If you didn't care before, then it seems your current concern is kinda empty. Sounds more like you're trying to paint Disney to be a villain of the story for having this so-called sweetheart deal. Disney didn't do anything illegal or unconstitutional. But DeSantis and company did.
Disney made a shady deal recently with the contract with the now-ousted board. If you want to call that "villainy," you can, but I certainly recognize the nuance of the situation and them taking steps to protect themselves from an openly hostile board. If anything, it's a poor reflection on DeSantis and the legislature that they didn't anticipate this kind of move and take steps to prevent it from happening in the first place. Now, short of another round of legislation dissolving the district for the purposes of getting Disney to the bargaining table to come up with a more balanced deal, I don't think much can be done that would pass constitutional muster.
Much in the same way that I don't fault big corporations or wealthy individuals from paying less in taxes, since it was the government that enabled them to do that, I don't fault Disney for taking this action; I just don't like it, again, because it only further enriches the company's quasi-governmental power.
