The Patriot Post® · Exposing Disney's Corporate Cronyism
Maybe this is why Disney execs believed they could disingenuously weigh in on Florida politics with impunity. If anything, a newly released audit of the company’s special little district in Florida presents a classic rationale for the need of good government.
In 2022, Disney decided to go to war over Florida’s parental rights law on behalf of the Rainbow Mafia, which, with the Leftmedia’s help, deceitfully labeled it “Don’t Say Gay.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis responded not by backing down to one of the Sunshine State’s largest employers but by standing firm. In fact, he went on offense, using the power of his office to check Disney’s bullying.
Disney lost its cushy special self-governing status in the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID), as DeSantis and the Florida legislature revoked the 55-year-old deal and installed the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD).
At the time, DeSantis’s move was questioned and even condemned by many on both sides of the political aisle. Critics said it set a potentially dangerous precedent of abuse to wield state government power against a private company. Some pundits even claimed DeSantis was infringing on Disney’s free speech rights.
Well, that narrative has been greatly undermined by the publishing of an independent audit of the old RCID commissioned by the CFTOD. In brief, what the auditors concluded in their 72-page report is that Disney, via its RCID, “facilitated the most egregious exhibition of corporate cronyism in modern American history.”
That’s a pretty damning indictment.
Going back to the 1960s when Walt Disney first began buying up land on the down-low near Orlando, his dream was to create the city of the future. Toward that end, Disney and Florida worked out that company’s special self-governing status by creating the RCID. The idea was that doing so would help facilitate not only the building of Disney World but also of the community within the district. Not long after the deal was made, Walt Disney died.
In the years that followed, Disney World was completed, but what the audit shows is that the promised development of a city was never truly realized. This is because The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) worked to ensure that it controlled RCID so as to do its own bidding.
The audit goes into great detail as to how TWDC controlled RCID’s board of supervisors, a board that in theory was supposed to be independent of TWDC and represent the interests of the greater community. In reality, the board looked out for the interests of TWDC to the disadvantage of the citizens of Osceola and Orange Counties in which RCID is situated.
The audit notes that members of the RCID board of supervisors were effectively employees of TWDC, even receiving the same theme park perks as TWDC employees. As a result of its control of Reedy Creek, TWDC received significant tax breaks, as well as streamlined services for its building projects.
Yet because Disney was so big and so popular, for years the state government effectively looked the other way. “Hardly anyone outside of the special district knew about the scope and scale of the problems plaguing it,” the audit observes. “Moreover, due to the sheer size of Disney, virtually no one in Tallahassee was keen to take on the company. As such, complacency and an absence of political will allowed Disney to use the public-private partnership to entrench and amplify its corporate power.”
What DeSantis has done in confronting Disney is what government is supposed to exist for in the first place — to provide oversight and check against abuse. Rather than an indictment against DeSantis, his willingness to fight Disney demonstrates that he is made of the right stuff for challenging and tackling the bureaucratic corruption that overwhelms Washington, DC. His impressive record in Florida is a ringing endorsement for the White House.