DeSantis thinks differently, but the bigger point isn’t about who picked the fight. It’s about who has the power. The state of Florida has a lot more power than Disney. I would not wager on Disney winning this scuffle.
There is no bigger point than government retaliation against a private company.
By what metric? Disney has about twice Florida’s yearly revenue. Florida does spend more than it takes in every year because like most red states it’s heavily subsidized by the rest of the country. But it still seems like Florida needs Disney more than Disney needs Florida.
Did that post make sense in your head?
Revenue doesn’t equate to power in this dispute but for what it’s worth, Florida’s FY 2022 revenue was $120.6 billion. Disney’s was about $85 billion. States have power to tax, zone, and regulate corporations. So while Disney’s gambit was clever, it’s not very smart to keep poking the bear. Especially with the billions they have invested in the state. They’re not going to win this one. Florida, not Disney, will govern the special district.
During the early days of the pandemic, Disney just shut their parks down. They don’t need DisneyWorld to survive. They have lots of other way to make money.
Nobody is attempting to put Disney out of business or shut down Disney World.
No, they just want to punish them for having the audacity to push back against god-emperor DeSantis.
I’m just pointing out Desantis has no leverage. If Disney just ignores him and keeps doing business as usual, what’s he going to do?
Hotel taxes in the district and toll roads leading into the park are a couple options. Probably others as well.
A drop in the bucket. As I said Disney easily absorbed shutting the entire park down for months. Desantis tacking a few dollars onto the cost of each visit is nothing.
Disney would not be happy with fewer customers or lower after tax returns and their shareholders would definitely not be happy either.
Disney knows their market. There’s no money in MAGA and catering to them alienates other people. I don’t kid myself that Disney is acting “woke” out of the goodness of their heart. That’s where the money is.
Or because of what DeSantis does Disney will just cut jobs in Florida. DeSantis can then answer to voters about why he cost them their jobs.
If Disney and its shareholders are happy it’s a win-win. I don’t think they would be though.
Disney is not going to cut jobs because of anything the state legislature and governor does. They will accept the state’s governance of the special district.
You simply can’t make that claim. If a tax is raised solely on hotels on Disney property but not others not as many people may choose to stay on Disney property, which would force layoffs.
He doesn’t want to raise tolls, he wants to create tolls on roads that don’t have them.
LOL! Neither does Disney.
Maybe. We’ll see how it goes.
LOL! There’s no maybe, the board transferred that power away.
I disagree with your speculation. Disney reached an agreement with the outgoing board, had it recorded as a valid restrictive covenant at the courthouse. It is essentially a valid binding contract between two parties. The state would have to pass legislation to permit a one-sided modification of a valid civil contract. And any major modification would likely trigger the billion dollar bond default provisions in Reedy Creek (which is why DeSantis had to wait for the outgoing terms to expire in the first place).
