Back in April 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis officially dissolved the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The special district had been around since 1967 and allowed Disney to function as its own form of government. DeSantis and the Republican-led Florida legislature voted to dissolve Reedy Creek after DeSantis and Disney began locking horns in March 2022.
As part of Reedy Creek’s dissolution, the embattled governor announced that the state would also be taking over the inspections of Disney’s most iconic transportation option — the monorail. Prior to the dissolution, Disney was able to have its own inspectors come in and make sure the monorail was operating safely. However, DeSantis said that that would no longer be acceptable, so he would send in state inspectors to do the work.
It’s been eight months, but that promise has finally come to fruition. According to Click Orlando — a local news site — the Florida Department of Transportation has begun the process of regulating the Walt Disney World monorail.
“Being that this is the first time that the State has had oversight, FDOT is doing its due diligence to thoroughly complete the review while ensuring the safety of travelers,” said FDOT District Five Public Information Director Cindi Lane.
FDOT’s Structures Maintenance Office, which inspects hundreds of bridges and other structures across the state, has begun conducting field inspections of Disney’s monorail structure.
As part of that process, Disney has provided FDOT with safety manuals and other existing monorail documentation, Lane said.
While it may not seem like a big deal to have state inspectors looking at the monorail system, they actually hold immense power. FDOT inspectors can choose to suspend Disney World monorail service while they are doing their inspections. We do not know how long they could keep the monorails down. Thankfully, that has not yet happened.
Since the state’s takeover of Walt Disney World Resort and the Reedy Creek District, things have gone from bad to worse between Disney, Governor DeSantis, and his new board running Reedy Creek.
The board has tried to force Disney to dissolve its Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion program. The head of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District — Glen Gilzean — called the program “unAmerican.” However, just two years ago, he was praising Disney and its DEI program for all the positive work it was doing in the area.
The district has also lost dozens of employees, some of whom worked for Reedy Creek for decades. No member of the CFTOD board has any experience working in the theme park industry. Those who have left said that morale is at an all-time low and called the board “unqualified and incompetent.”
Disney is currently suing the CFTOD for violating its First Amendment Rights, as well as breach of contract.
Yet another afflicted party is speaking up in the battle between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Walt Disney World Resort’s Reedy Creek Improvement District.
DeSantis’s hand-picked Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board held its second-ever meeting on Wednesday, pressing forward despite the hastily-passed King Charles clause. Before transferring power to the new board, Reedy Creek essentially made itself powerless effective until 22 years after the death of the last current living descendant of King Charles III.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Disney Springs business owners appealed to DeSantis’s board for help. Representatives from Wine Bar George, Splitsville, T-Rex Cafe, Yak and Yeti, The Boathouse, and more were present at the meeting to express their concerns after the board voted to void an agreement between the State of Florida and Disney Springs tenants, upping their taxes to fund the battle between DeSantis and Reedy Creek.
Business owners say the change threatens their livelihoods and asked to create an ongoing conversation with the new board members. One told the Orlando Business Journal they felt like “collateral damage” in the battle.
“At the beginning of the meeting, they couldn’t be any nicer. At the end of the meeting, they say they are going to raise taxes,” another said.
Hours later, Walt Disney World Resort announced a lawsuit against DeSantis. The Walt Disney Company alleges that its First Amendment right to free speech was violated when the Republican Governor retaliated against former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, who spoke out against the Parental Rights In Education Act (“Don’t Say Gay”).
Nevertheless, DeSantis claims he and his board did nothing wrong. In a press release, the Governor’s communication director wrote that the “lawsuit is yet another example of [Disney’s] hope to undermine the will of the Florida voters and operate outside the bounds of the law.”
The Florida state legislature has voted in favor of Governor Ron DeSantis’ proposed bill, which would reduce the independence enjoyed by Walt Disney World through the Reedy Creek Improvement District Act and Walt Disney World President Jeff Vahle responds.
Walt Disney himself first began to ratify the Reedy Creek Act, an unfortunate fact that enabled DeSantis to take advantage of a loophole to dissolve any proposed special district agreement signed into law before 1968. Of course, DeSantis holds a more personal vendetta against the Walt Disney World Resort’s specific special district, which allowed it near self-governance for fifty years due to the Walt Disney Company’s vocal support of LGBTQ+ rights after DeSantis passed the infamous “Don’t Say Gay Bill,” regulating visibility for minority identities and histories, particularly in children’s educational curriculum.
In fact, the new HB 9 bill prevents the landowners (AKA Disney Parks) from selecting the new board members, all five of which DeSantis himself will now appoint. Furthermore, board members are restricted to those without theme park or entertainment complex experience within the last three years, effectively eliminating anyone from the Disney brand who actually has the Parks interests in mind.
Many theme park analysts feared the worst for the fate of Disney World if HB 9 passed, and now that it has, they are looking to the theme park mogul itself to see its next move. Moreover, some questioned if Disney would take the case to the Supreme Court to have DeSantis’ eligibility limitations or the entire redistribution of power appealed.
However, a new statement released by Walt Disney World President Jeff Vahle suggests quite the opposite: Disney hopes to wash its hands of the matter and accept the new changes. Specifically, Vahle states Disney is more focused on its future than holding onto the District of the pass, opting to adapt to DeSantis’ changes in order to continue operations and innovating the Disney Parks experience for Guests.
You can read the full statement, as reported to WFTV9 below:
For more than 50 years, the Reedy Creek Improvement District has operated at the highest standards, and we appreciate all that the District has done to help our destination grow and become one of the largest economic contributors and employers in the state. We are focused on the future and are ready to work within this new framework, and we will continue to innovate, inspire and bring joy to the millions of guests who come to Florida to visit Walt Disney World each year.
Even so, the bill significantly reduces or completely strips Walt Disney World and Reedy Creek of its self-governing powers, meaning the coming adjustment period may very well determine the Company’s fate.
Florida lawmakers filed a bill on Monday that will save an original piece of the Walt Disney World Resort, which was scheduled for demolition, though it will be given a new name.
During a special session on Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis and lawmakers in the Sunshine State introduced House Bill 9B, which, if passed, will keep intact an original part of Disney World, originally incepted by Walt Disney and his brother Roy Disney in 1967.
House Bill 9B is titled the “Reedy Creek Improvement District, Orange and Osceola Counties.” The bill was filed on Monday during the special session that was called to determine the fate of Disney World’s special tax district, which gives the Central Florida parks the ability to self-govern.
The district had been in jeopardy of being dissolved completely following the passing of a statute in April 2022 by the Florida legislature that would end all special districts formed in Florida before 1968.
“I am announcing today that we are expanding the call of what they are going to be considering,” Governor Ron DeSantis said in a press conference in April. “Yes, they will be considering the congressional map, but they also will be considering termination of all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968, and that includes [Disney’s] Reedy Creek Improvement District.”
DeSantis went on to say that he “[doesn’t] support special privileges in law just because a company is powerful” and that Disney had “been able to wield a lot of power.”
House Bill 9B is lengthy, but the biggest part of the takeaway so far is that if it’s passed, Gov. DeSantis will appoint board members himself to oversee the activities of the Reedy Creek special district. The bill also calls for the renaming of the district to “The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.”
NEW: "HB 9B – Reedy Creek Improvement District, Orange and Osceola Counties" has been filed. The bill proposes changes including renaming the district to "Central Florida Tourism Oversight District."
Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District has the authority and responsibilities assigned to any county government, and its jurisdiction lies in both Orange and Osceola Counties. The district’s jurisdiction includes the cities of Bay Lake, Florida, and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, as well as unincorporated Reedy Creek land.
On May 4, a lawsuit was filed against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on behalf of some taxpayers who reside in Osceola County and Orange County. The lawsuit claimed that Governor DeSantis had violated the rights of the taxpayers and would cause them financial injury with the dissolution of the Reedy Creek Improvement Act. The Reedy Creek Improvement act allows Disney to act as its own government and, if dissolved, the costs typically incurred by Reedy Creek would be passed on to the taxpayers in the aforementioned counties.
When the lawsuit was filed, it was stated that the Plaintiffs in the case were not seeking monetary damages — they simply wanted to prevent the termination of the Reedy Creek Improvement Act. As quickly as the lawsuit was filed, it seems to have been dismissed just as quickly. On May 10, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit against Governor DeSantis.
In her order, U.S. District Court Judge Cecilia Altonaga, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote that the suit was dismissed for several reasons, including the federal court’s lack of standing over state issues and because the law does not go into effect until July 2023.
Altonaga wrote that the three plaintiffs, Michael and Edward Foronda of Kissimmee and Vivian Gorsky of Orange County, “do not plausibly allege they have suffered any concrete injury as a result of the alleged violation of Disney’s First Amendment rights, and nothing in the Complaint shows Plaintiffs have a close relationship with Disney.”
The new law, she wrote, “does not apply to them, they do not allege direct harm as a result of the challenged law, and they do not plausibly allege any credible threat of direct harm in the future.”
Their claim to standing in the case, she wrote, was that the elimination of the district “might result in financial harm to Plaintiffs by virtue of a tax increase that has not yet been enacted. That indirect and highly speculative alleged injury cannot support federal jurisdiction. … Again — it is worth emphasizing — the bill does not apply to Plaintiffs at all.”
Although the federal judge has dismissed the original filing, William Sanchez — the Miami lawyer who filed the original suit on behalf of the Plaintiffs — said that this was only the beginning of a long fight. He said that he plans to refile the suit no later than Monday, May 16.
Florida law currently states that, if Reedy Creek is dissolved, its debts would be passed on to the taxpayers. Those debts are currently estimated to be over $1 billion. Governor DeSantis has told his constituents that they will not see an increase in their taxes if Reedy Creek ceases to exist, but he has not yet released details on how he will be able to circumvent the law.
