Deplorable:
Florida’s Republican-led state legislature on Thursday passed a bill sought by Gov. Ron DeSantis to cancel Walt Disney World’s special tax district in Florida.
The speedy approval of the bill — it was filed three days ago, during a special session that was called for a different reason — was decried by state Democrats. Sen. Tina Polsky (D) called it “an enormous decision based on spite and revenge governance.”
The House did not debate the bill after a Democrats held a sit-in to protest a map that DeSantis had ordered that redraws Florida’s congressional districts and cuts the number of minority access districts in half. House speaker Chris Sprowls said that if representatives couldn’t be “civil,” he would cancel the debate and go straight to the vote, which he did.
DeSantis (R) has been feuding with the Walt Disney Company for weeks, ever since CEO Bob Chapek issued a statement criticizing a parental rights law that DeSantis championed and paused donations to Florida politicians. That law prohibits discussions about gender-related issues in public school classes up to third grade, and potentially through high school.
The Disney law will dissolve the entertainment giant’s Reedy Creek Improvement District, which was created in 1967 after Walt Disney bought 40 square miles of land in Central Florida to build the Magic Kingdom. Disney lobbyists said the project was too massive for local governments to handle, so legislators gave Disney the authority to run the development as a quasi-governmental agency.
The law doesn’t take effect until June 2023, giving local governments near Disney 14 months to decide how to manage and pay for the huge property’s public services, such as road maintenance and sewage treatment.
Florida’s Republican-led state legislature on Thursday passed a bill sought by Gov. Ron DeSantis to cancel Walt Disney World’s special tax district in Florida.
The speedy approval of the bill — it was filed three days ago, during a special session that was called for a different reason — was decried by state Democrats. Sen. Tina Polsky (D) called it “an enormous decision based on spite and revenge governance.”
The House did not debate the bill after a Democrats held a sit-in to protest a map that DeSantis had ordered that redraws Florida’s congressional districts and cuts the number of minority access districts in half. House speaker Chris Sprowls said that if representatives couldn’t be “civil,” he would cancel the debate and go straight to the vote, which he did.
DeSantis (R) has been feuding with the Walt Disney Company for weeks, ever since CEO Bob Chapek issued a statement criticizing a parental rights law that DeSantis championed and paused donations to Florida politicians. That law prohibits discussions about gender-related issues in public school classes up to third grade, and potentially through high school.
The Disney law will dissolve the entertainment giant’s Reedy Creek Improvement District, which was created in 1967 after Walt Disney bought 40 square miles of land in Central Florida to build the Magic Kingdom. Disney lobbyists said the project was too massive for local governments to handle, so legislators gave Disney the authority to run the development as a quasi-governmental agency.
The law doesn’t take effect until June 2023, giving local governments near Disney 14 months to decide how to manage and pay for the huge property’s public services, such as road maintenance and sewage treatment.