Ron DeSantis Tells Disney, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing” About Reedy Creek Battle

Gov. Ron DeSantis has vowed to say more about the state’s increasingly complicated battle with Disney to roll back the company’s control of part of central Florida, home to Walt Disney World.

“There’s a lot of back and forth right now as the state takes control, but rest assured you haven’t seen anything,” the Republican governor told a crowd in Smyrna, Georgia, according to CNN. . “There is more to come in that regard.”

For decades, Disney had the authority to build, tax and develop the area known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District under a longstanding state charter. Last year, the state legislature approved it, and DeSantis passed an amendment removing Disney’s authority. It comes after former CEO Bob Chapek fell out with the governor over a bill called “Don’t Say Gay.” However, in a surprising twist, it was revealed earlier this week that Disney may have tricked the state into taking control of the 27,000 acres surrounding Orlando.

DeSantis named new members of the Reedy Creek Board of Directors in a bill signed into law on February 27. But that doesn’t appear until the previous board voted control of Disney in a way that is difficult to reverse. The new board discovered the apparently public agreements and sued.

“We need to look into it and fix it,” Brian Aungst Jr., a member of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District’s board of supervisors, said this week, referring to the vote by then-Disney-owned company Reedy Creek Improvement District was held. . “This is an undermining of the will of the voters, the legislature and the governor. It completely bypasses that government’s authority to govern.”

The cause of the Disney-DeSantis breach, the Parental Rights in Education Act, states that third grade public school teachers may not teach or discuss sexual orientation or gender. Under pressure from Disney employees, Chapek protested at DeSantis.

“I don’t know if promoting the toddler gender ideology is the right use of shareholder resources, but nevertheless they chose to do it,” DeSantis snapped Thursday, according to CNN.

The governor did not explain how he would address Reedy Creek, but spoke loudly. “They basically got everything they wanted in the many decades they’ve been operating in Florida — until now, because now there’s a new sheriff in town,” he said.

DeSantis spokeswoman Taryn Fenske called the vote one of Disney’s “last ditch efforts” to transfer “duties and authority” to itself in a statement shared with the Orlando Sentinel earlier this week. “An initial assessment suggests that there may be significant legal defects in these agreements that would render the contracts void under the law.”

However, Walt Disney World Resort claimed in a statement to Deadline that “all agreements between Disney and the District were reasonable and were discussed and approved in open, well-known public forums consistent with the Florida government’s Sunshine Act.”