Political | Process

DeSantis issued a proclamation calling for the special session to be expanded to include consideration of terminating all special districts enacted in Florida prior to 1968.

Years before Cinderella Castle opened, Walt Disney himself proposed to state lawmakers that Disney World should have governing authority over the land.

Months after his death in December 1966, the governor and legislature in 1967 granted the company, under the direction of Walt’s brother Roy, the establishment of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, to govern property that would eventually become Disney World.

Under Florida law, landowners of Reedy Creek, like Disney, can regulate their own water, power and emergency services. DeSantis said their power doesn’t end there.

“I was shocked to see some of the stuff that’s in there. They can do their own nuclear power plant. Is there any other private company in the state that can just build a nuclear power plant on their own?” he said. “They’re able to do certain things that nobody else is able to do. So I think they’re right to be looking at this and reevaluating and having an even playing field for everybody, I think is much better than basically to allow one company to be a law onto itself.”

Disney’s independence has been under the microscope in the wake of the company denouncing Florida’s new “Parental Rights in Education” law.

In a tweet, state Rep. Spencer Roach, who represents the North Fort Myers area, wrote that lawmakers have already met twice to talk about repealing the Reedy Creek Improvement Act.

“If Disney wants to embrace ‘woke’ ideology, it seems fitting that they should be regulated by Orange County,” Roach said.

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