Florida Republicans Prepare To Give Control Of Disney To Ron DeSantis - Ring of Fire [View all]

[TexasTowelie]

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held a special session of the state legislature this week to finalize his assault on the Disney Corporation and the Reddy Creek Charter that they've been operating under for decades. While DeSantis and the Republican-controlled legislature dissolved the district last year (which has not yet gone into effect), they changed course this week and proposed new legislation that would put "control" of the district directly in DeSantis' hands. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

==============

*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

The Republican controlled Florida state legislature held a special session this week to figure out just what the heck to do with that special little tax district they created decades ago for the Disney Corporation to build their Disney theme parks, uh, just outside of Orlando, Florida. And as we all know, last summer, they had dissolved the Ready Creek Charter, which is what created the Special District. But they've come up with new legislation now cuz the district has not yet been dissolved. That's something that takes a little bit of time. But now they've decided, you know what, Disney, we're gonna let that district stand. We're gonna rename it, it's gonna be called.

It's gonna be called the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, and it's gonna be run by a five member panel. Oh, and by the way, the new legislation says that all five of those members of that panel, they're not gonna be decided by the landowners in that area, which, you know, most of it is Disney. Instead, they're gonna be chosen by the governor of the state of Florida and they can serve, you know, many, many years on this board. And oh, by the way, case you forgot the governor happens to be Ron DeSantis. So what happened was that instead of returning control of this district over to the people in the area, you know, the citizens, the ones who pay their taxes and do all that, like, this is our area. No, they're not gonna do that anymore because Ron DeSantis is a power hungry megalomaniac.

And so now they're literally giving him complete control over the district by allowing him to pick the five people that are going to run it. This is sick. I'm not saying Disney should be getting these special handouts. I'm not even saying Disney should control the district. They shouldn't, but Ron DeSantis sure shouldn't be the one controlling that district. Like I'd rather see Disney do it. I'd rather see Goofy and Pluto running the district than Ron DeSantis. They would make much better decisions, I guarantee you. But this is Ron DeSantis new power grab and it's power that again, a year ago, they dangled in front of the people in that district. You get control again and yeah, we're gonna screw you over on the tax issue. Unfortunately, it's just what happens. But you at least get to control your district. You get to vote for your leaders. Nope, not under this new legislation that is most likely going to pass because it's legislation by Republicans. For Republicans that gets voted on by Republicans to eventually be signed by a Republican. It's going to pass. Ron DeSantis is now going to have complete control over Disney World and he won't stop there. We've already seen him this week strip the liquor license of a, uh,

Establishment that held a Christmas drag show. So he is, uh, overstepping his bounds. The likelihood that this district, uh, the way the Republicans have it in this legislation, legal experts have already picked it apart back and forth. So it's probably not gonna stand even if they pass it, which is just gonna prolong the turmoil here. But that's all because again, DeSantis is overstepping his bounds because the only thing he wants is more power.