Disney’s long-running feud with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis enters a recent phase as the Republican introduces recent sanctions in response to the company’s maneuver to overthrow state control of an area government district.
DeSantis revealed Monday that Florida’s GOP-controlled legislature will introduce a bill to overturn a 30-year-old development deal that effectively stripped a newly appointed state oversight board of power to oversee Disney’s special tax district.
The Florida governor will even seek to revoke other privileges previously granted to Disney in his self-governing district, corresponding to rules that exempted the company’s monorail and transportation systems from outside scrutiny, The Post first reported.
“We would like to make certain that Disney lives by the same laws as everyone else,” DeSantis said at a press conference.
The Post contacted Disney for comment.
Tensions between DeSantis and Disney escalated again after the state-controlled board discovered that the company had obtained approval for a 30-year development deal from the now-defunct Reedy Creek Improvement District just before its dissolution – a move the governor condemned as an illegal try and oppose will of the state legislature.
“What they’ve tried to do is embarrassing,” a senior administration official told The Post on Sunday. “The narrative that the left is spinning is that Governor DeSantis has been outmaneuvered. But it surely’s not over yet, and he’ll have the last laugh.”
![Florida Governor Ron DeSantis](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009720477.jpg?w=1024)
Earlier this month, DeSantis also announced the possibility of recent taxes on Disney hotels and real estate developments and tolls on roads near Florida properties.
“They will keep attempting to do things, but ultimately we’ll win any case involving Disney,” DeSantis said at an event at the conservative Hillsdale College.
The general public feud between DeSantis and Mouse House looked as if it would die down earlier this 12 months, when state legislators approved a recent oversight board designed to rein in Disney’s near-unilateral control of the special district housing its theme parks.
The five-member board, named the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, was given oversight authority over the special tax district that Disney had controlled since 1967. DeSantis appointed all five board members.
![DeSantis](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000007347467-2.jpg?w=1024)
But board members of the Reedy Creek Improvement District approved Disney’s land development deal at the last minute on February 8 — a day before Florida’s House signed laws formally establishing the recent supervisory board.
The deal effectively undermined the recent board’s authority, granting Disney continued control of the district’s zoning, infrastructure, and air rights for the next few a long time.
The development agreement also contained a provision stopping the district from using the likeness of Mickey Mouse or any Disney “fictional character” in reference to its property without the company’s permission.
![Bob Iger](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000006350192.jpg?w=683)
Disney allegedly believes the deal met all state requirements, having been approved in a public hearing and announced twice in the Orlando Sentinel newspaper last January prior to the meeting.
Nevertheless, DeSantis ordered state authorities to conduct a “thorough review and investigation” into approving the deal.
“These conspiracies and deals are designed to invalidate recently enacted laws, undercut Florida’s legislative process, and defy the will of the people of Florida,” DeSantis wrote in a letter to Florida’s chief inspector general Melinda Miguel earlier this month.
![Disney](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009174863-1.jpg?w=1024)
Disney CEO Bob Iger strongly criticized DeSantis’s crackdown – arguing that the governor “decided to get revenge on us” and used “anti-business” methods.
But Iger tried to defuse rising tensions in the governor’s office last week.
“I do not see it as a bedtime situation,” Iger told Time magazine.
The Disney-DeSantis feud dates back to last 12 months, when the company first drew his ire by publicly lobbying against parental law in education in Florida.
The laws, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law by critics, prohibits teachers in the state from discussing gender identity or sexual orientation with students under the fourth grade.