On Wednesday, the Florida Senate passed a bill that eliminates a special taxing district that has allowed Walt Disney Co. to govern the land where its theme park is located.
“The measure potentially delivers a blow to the company’s operations in the state,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “The special district, created in 1967 and known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District, exempts Disney from a host of regulations and certain taxes and fees related to emergency services and road maintenance. It saves Disney tens of millions of dollars a year, according to a person familiar with the company’s finances who studied the issue over a decade ago.”
The bill, which passed the Florida Senate 23-16 on Wednesday, would dissolve any special district established before the ratification of the Florida Constitution in 1968, and not renewed since then, on June 1, 2023.
“The legislation affects a half-dozen districts across the state, but only Reedy Creek involves a high-profile company, according to Republican Rep. Randy Fine, the bill’s sponsor. Disney could seek to re-establish a special district after the Reedy Creek district’s dissolution,” The Wall Street Journal added.
The bill will now go to Florida’s Republican-led House where it is expected to be approved. Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who called on lawmakers to consider a bill like this earlier this week, has already indicated that he would sign the bill into law.
“What I would say as a matter of first principle is I don’t support special privileges in law just because a company is powerful and they’ve been able to wield a lot of power,” DeSantis said last month. “I think what has happened is there’s a lot of these special privileges that are not justifiable, but because Disney had held so much sway, they were able to sustain a lot of special treatment over the years.”
