This week, Disney taught Ron DeSantis a big lesson by pulling the plug on the event of a $1 billion workplace advanced that might’ve introduced roughly 2,000 jobs to Florida. The transfer arrived after weeks of Disney suing DeSantis for violating the corporate’s first modification rights by retaliating towards the leisure large for opposing the state’s controversial “Don’t Say Homosexual” invoice. DeSantis sought to take management of the particular district the place Disneyland sits, however was repeatedly outmaneuvered by Disney’s lawyers.
Nonetheless, following the workplace advanced debacle, DeSantis is now making an attempt to to reframe his struggle with Disney as a missive within the struggle towards “company welfare.” By no means thoughts that DeSantis and Florida Republicans are on the document particularly attacking Disney for being “woke” and publicly stating their intentions to make use of the complete energy of the federal government to punish the corporate for its protected speech, DeSantis goes to plow forward and fake that the feud isn’t an simply actionable first modification violation.
Cute that he acts like he simply needed to finish “company welfare” for Disney, and that’s why he went on this campaign towards them. Many locations in FL have particular standing. Let’s speak about ‘The Villages.’ This was all as a result of they criticized Ron DeSnowflake. pic.twitter.com/VNuzIR5OBS
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 19, 2023
“They need to have their very own authorities,” DeSantis said throughout a marketing campaign cease. “They’ve had their very own authorities for 50 years. It’s large company welfare. We’re not doing that. They’re going to stay beneath the identical legal guidelines as all people else. They’re going to pay their justifiable share of taxes. They’re not going to control themselves.”
There’s only one small downside with DeSantis’ argument. Disney isn’t the one company entity with particular districts within the state. Throughout an earnings name final week, Disney CEO Bob Iger already dismantled this speaking level.
“There are 2,000 particular districts in Florida to foster enterprise and funding,” Iger said whereas mentioning the Daytona Worldwide Speedway. “It’s simple to say Reedy Creek advantages us, but it surely’s deceptive to not say the way it benefited the state of Florida.”
As for taxes, Iger additionally famous in the course of the name that Disney paid $1.1 billion in taxes in 2022. Strive once more, Ron.
(Through Ron Filipkowski on Twitter)
