Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that he would be open to repealing a 55-year-old state law that allows Disney to have its special self-governing status.
Disney recently publicly opposed the “Parental Rights in Education” bill, which has been nicknamed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
“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 in West Palm Beach, Florida on Thursday.
DeSantis also said “Disney has alienated a lot of people now”. “And so the political influence they’re used to wielding, I think has dissipated. And so the question is, why would you want to have special privileges in the law at all?”
In 1967, Florida created the Reedy Creek Improvement District, an independent governing entity controlled by Disney.
“I would say any special privileges that are in law I would like to get rid of generally,” DeSantis said. “That was probably never appropriate to start, but is certainly not appropriate now at this point,” he added.
Florida State Rep. Spencer Roach tweeted this week “Yesterday was the 2nd meeting in a week w/fellow legislators to discuss a repeal of the 1967 Reedy Creek Improvement Act, which allows Disney to act as its own government”.
“If Disney wants to embrace woke ideology, it seems fitting that they should be regulated by Orange County,” Roach continued.
Earlier this week, DeSantis addressed Disney’s criticism and said the company has “crossed the line”.