Only if FL sticks with attorneys on salary, AGs office.
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News Reedy Creek Improvement District and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District
- Thread starter castlecake2.0
- Start date
I think Disney opened a bigger Pandora's Box by being sneaky to keep control of RCID. They acted like they were going accept it and than tried to keep it last minute with clever wording. I may be wrong but I don't think much would have changed if they had lost control of RCID. Now Disney has made DeSantis even more determined to crush The Mouse. It will probably cost Disney millions in lost revenue due boycotting company wide.
MagicHappens1971
Well-Known Member
This post is obtuse. DeSantis and his cronies were going to use their power and influence to prevent WDW from doing things, such as building an attraction in an effort to influence Disneys overall content. Disney is not stupid and did not make obnoxious statements all over the media about their intentions, they made a smart move by entering into a legally binding contract with RCID. r DeSantis and his legislature will not win. I don’t know what “boycotting” you’re claiming is happening, but it’s not. This is a culture war waged by DeSantis, that he will not win. If this gets escalated to the Supreme Court, which it may, they will have to rule in Disneys favor, or overturn Citizens United, which they won’t.
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JAN J
Active Member
By who?
lentesta
Premium Member
Yeahhhh...I mean, the contract clause and due process stuff will appeal to originalists. The 1A claims will appeal to others. There's something for most jurists to focus on. And there's a lot of good "court of public opinion" stuff. Plus a nice acknowledgement that they're motivated to protect Cast members. So they've addressed the courts, the public, and the CMs. Well written.
If they go with their army of $41k/yr recent grad civil servant attorneys, they're going to be eaten alive.
I want to buy you a beer.
Fido Chuckwagon
Well-Known Member
Unlikely.
tissandtully
Well-Known Member
works for DVC
MagicHappens1971
Well-Known Member
They also just announced $17 billion in investments in Florida over the next 10 years. Unreasonable to think that juries won’t side with Disney, aside from the reasons based in law.
RamblinWreck
Well-Known Member
Coming back to Disney pointing out that they are able to fight back against this while others in the state can’t…
Maybe Disney should bankroll several more lawsuits for people and companies who have been obvious targets of the governor’s retaliatory tendencies.
Maybe Disney should bankroll several more lawsuits for people and companies who have been obvious targets of the governor’s retaliatory tendencies.
V.i.n.c.e.n.t.
Member
They will make more money this year than ever...
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Read the lawsuit. Here's the link: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23789600-file-stamped-disney-complaint1
Also, given how busy the parks have been, they're clearly not suffering.
tissandtully
Well-Known Member
Tell me you don't know any of the facts without telling me you don't know any of the facts
Doubt it. Assistant State Attorney looks good on a resume.
Yep
The taxpayers of Florida.
Fido Chuckwagon
Well-Known Member
It's just extremely unlikely this thing ever gets to a jury. Juries decide issues of fact. What issue of fact is in dispute here? Desantis and the members of the legislature admitted to all of Disney's allegations, through their public statements, and through Desantis book! Most, if not all of it is going to get decided in a summary judgment motion.
Disney Sues DeSantis Over Control of Its Florida Resort
The company claimed “a targeted campaign of government retaliation,” which it said stemmed from its criticism of a contentious state education law.
Disney Sues DeSantis Over Control of Its Florida Resort
The company claimed “a targeted campaign of government retaliation,” which it said stemmed from its criticism of a contentious state education law.
By Brooks Barnes
April 26, 2023Updated 12:01 p.m. ET
The fight between Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and the Walt Disney Company is headed to court.
On Wednesday, a board appointed by Mr. DeSantis to oversee government services at Disney World voted to nullify two agreements that gave Disney vast control over expansion at the 25,000-acre resort complex. Within minutes, Disney sued Mr. DeSantis, the five-member board and other state officials in federal court, claiming “a targeted campaign of government retaliation.”
Last year, under pressure from its employees, Disney criticized a Florida education law labeled “Don’t Say Gay” by opponents and halted political donations in the state — and landed in the cross hairs of Mr. DeSantis, who put a plan in motion to revoke Disney World’s self-governing privileges. Disney’s lawsuit accused Mr. DeSantis of a “relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint.” The campaign, the complaint added, “now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region and violates its constitutional rights.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. DeSantis had no immediate comment.
At the center of the fight between Mr. DeSantis and Disney is a special tax district that encompasses Disney World, which employs 75,000 people and attracts 50 million visitors annually. The district, created in 1967 southwest of Orlando, effectively turned the property into its own county, giving Disney unusual control over fire protection, policing, waste management, energy generation, road maintenance, bond issuance and development planning.
In February, lawmakers decided to allow the governor to appoint an oversight board for the district in an attempt to curtail the company’s autonomy. The state previously allowed Disney, Florida’s largest taxpayer, to select the board members.
Before the new board was in place, however, Disney pushed through the agreements in early February — in public meetings advertised in The Orlando Sentinel. One of the agreements gives Disney the ability to build 14,000 additional hotel rooms, a fifth theme park and three smaller parks. The other restricts the use of abutting land; no strip clubs, for instance.
When the DeSantis appointees reported for duty last month, they were outraged to discover that the previous, Disney-controlled board had approved the development agreement and restrictive covenants, limiting the new board’s power for decades to come.
Mr. DeSantis — a leading Republican presidential contender although he has not officially declared that he is running — also reacted with fury. He suggested a variety of potential punitive actions against Disney, including reappraising the value of the resort for property tax levies and developing land near the entrances to the resort. “Maybe create a state park, maybe try to do more amusement parks — someone even said, like, maybe you need another state prison,” he said at an April 17 news conference.
He also said that an effort was underway to give the state new authority over ride safety inspections at Disney World, as well as its 15-mile monorail transportation system, which carries an estimated 150,000 passengers a day.
The nullification vote by the board came after its general counsel, Daniel Langley, presented evidence of what he called “self-dealing” and “procedural unconscionability” by Disney in pushing through the agreements earlier this year. Mr. Langley and another board lawyer said Disney violated Florida law in multiple ways, including by failing to fully notify the public of the actions it took.
“What they created is an absolute legal mess,” Martin Garcia, the board chairman, said of Disney during the meeting.
Disney’s lawsuit called the board’s action “patently retaliatory, patently anti-business and patently unconstitutional.”
Daniel M. Petrocelli, a high-powered Los Angeles litigator, filed the complaints on Disney’s behalf in United States District Court in Tallahassee. Mr. Petrocelli was the lawyer who former President Donald J. Trump turned to in 2016 when dealing with a class-action fraud case against the defunct Trump University.
Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, has characterized Mr. DeSantis as “anti-business” and “anti-Florida” for his actions. Mr. Iger has also signaled that future investment in Disney World could be at risk if the governor continued to use Disney as a political punching bag; the company has earmarked more than $17 billion in spending at the resort over the next decade, growth that would create an estimated 13,000 jobs at the company.
Disney paid and collected a total of $1.2 billion in state and local taxes in 2022, according to company disclosures.
“A company has a right to freedom of speech just like individuals do,” Mr. Iger said at Disney’s annual shareholder meeting this month. “The governor got very angry over the position Disney took and seems like he’s decided to retaliate against us, including the naming of a new board to oversee the property, in effect to seek to punish a company for its exercise of a constitutional right. And that just seems really wrong to me.”