DeSantis’ appointees attack Disney over local employee perks and discounts

By Samantha Delouya, CNN

(CNN) — Allies of Ron DeSantis have fired another shot at the Walt Disney Company as the Florida governor’s long-standing rivalry with the media company heats up again.

DeSantis’ recently appointed Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, set up to oversee the 47-square-mile district that contains Walt Disney World Resort, submitted a complaint to the state’s Inspector General, accusing the previous Disney oversight board, which was disbanded earlier this year, of doling out “unethical benefits and perks.”

The complaint claims that free theme park tickets and discounts on food, hotels and merchandise previously given to district board members and employees cost Florida taxpayers millions of dollars. In 2022 alone, the benefits cost taxpayers more than $2.5 million, they allege. The board said it has set in motion plans to eliminate the benefits.

District disputes

As tensions between DeSantis, a 2024 Republican presidential hopeful, and Disney continue to fester, the battle over who controls the district containing Disney’s theme parks has become particularly contentious.

Earlier this year, DeSantis signed a bill giving the Florida government new power over the district, which was then called the Reedy Creek Improvement District. RCID was established in 1967 and gave Disney municipal control of the area surrounding its theme parks. As part of DeSantis’ bill, RCID was renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, and the district’s pre-existing oversight board was replaced by five people hand-picked by DeSantis.

In a post on Twitter, now called X, DeSantis’ press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, said that the theme park discount “scheme” by the previous RCID, “raises serious legal questions, as the original RCID law only allowed a max of $100/month in compensation for board members.” Disney did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Disney is the district’s largest taxpayer

However, Aubrey Jewett, an associate professor of political science at the University of Central Florida, pointed out that despite the current oversight board’s claims of taxpayer fund misuse, the Walt Disney Company is the largest contributor of tax revenue to Disney’s special district by a significant margin.

“It’s not like they’re robbing the taxpayer. Disney ran the government, but they also paid for it,” Jewett said.

According to the most recent annual financial report from RCID, the taxes on real estate owned by the Walt Disney Company were the primary source of revenue for the district and Disney comprised 88% of the total taxable assessed value in the district for the year ended September 30, 2022.

Jewett also said that scheme DeSantis’ allies refer to in their complaint to Florida’s Inspector General amounted to a perk for the district’s employees, including the firefighters and safety administrators.

“They had an employee benefit for working in Reedy Creek,” he said.

DeSantis’ war with Disney wages on

The accusation by DeSantis’ new board is the latest stab in the back-and-forth battle between the governor and one of Florida’s largest employers.

The conflict began last year when Disney spoke out against a bill championed by DeSantis that banned certain instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida classrooms. Disney’s then-CEO, Bob Chapek, called the bill, dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, a “challenge to basic human rights.”

Since then, DeSantis has grown increasingly critical of Disney’s influence and presence in Florida.

Earlier this year, Disney sued DeSantis and the district oversight board in federal court, accusing DeSantis of weaponizing his political power to punish the company for exercising its right to free speech. In May, the oversight board voted to sue Disney in order to maintain its oversight of the district.

Earlier this month, DeSantis urged Disney to drop its lawsuit in an interview with CNBC, saying “we’ve basically moved on.”

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