Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed legislation effective June 2023 that will remove a favorable status from Disney World’s theme park because the entertainment giant has championed certain progressive issues unappreciated by elected Republicans. The special status in the crosshairs of the text was granted to Disney at the time of the construction of Disney World Theme Park in the 1960s, which gave it extensive autonomy of local government and exempted it from most state regulations.
Relations between DeSantis and Disney soured recently after Disney CEO Bob Chapek publicly opposed a governor-sponsored law banning teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary schools.
“You are a corporation headquartered in Burbank, California, and you are using your economic power to attack parents in my state. We see this as a provocation and we will fight against it,” DeSantis said Friday as he signed the text. Disney’s theme park near Orlando is among the most visited in the world, and the Disney brand remains popular with Americans.
With its special status, Disney guaranteed a number of basic public services, such as garbage collection or water treatment, and some elected officials fear that removing this status would result in a transfer of debt to local governments.