Thelegal battle between the Walt Disney Company and the body politic of Florida over Walt Disney World ’s special territorial dominion proceed to fire up up .
In a publicly spread earnings call originally today , Disney CEO Bob Iger was need about his mentation on the special district skirmish , a result of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ’ attemptsto punish Disney for standing against his anti - LGBTQIA+ legislation . The latest developments have included Walt Disney Company suing DeSantis ’ manus - pick board on the grounds that its plans for theReedy Creek Oversight Board , whereDisney Worldis settle , were “ enacted in revenge for Disney ’s political speech communication in misdemeanor of the First Amendment . ” For context , Disney is the largest taxpayer in Florida and currently has over 75,000 employee in the state , all being paid above minimum pay .
“ Regarding Florida I have got a few things I desire to say about that , ” Iger declared on the record during the call . “ First of all , I believe the case that we filed last calendar month made our position and the facts very clear-cut and that is really that this is about one thing and one thing only — and that is retaliating against us for take a position about pending statute law . And we believe that in us taking that position we are merely practise our right to gratuitous speech . ”
Photo: Octavio Jones (Getty Images)
He keep on . “ Also , this is not about special privileges or a stratum playing arena or Disney in any way using its leverage around the state of Florida . But since there ’s been a lot tell about special territory and the arrangement that we have , I want to set the record straight on that too . There are about 2,000 special districts in Florida . Most are established to nurture investor development , where we were one of them . He basically made it easy for us — and others , by the means — to do concern in Florida , and we built a business that utilise , as we said before , over 75,000 mass , and attracts tens of millions of people to the land . So while it is gentle to say that the Reedy Creek Special District that was established for us over 50 years ago gain us , it is shoddy to not also consider how much Disney benefited the country of Florida . And we are also not the only company lock a particular district . I mentioned 2,000 — the Daytona Speedway , it has one . So do the Villages , which is a permanent retreat biotic community , and there are countless others . ”
Iger continued . “ So if the goal is leveling the performing field of operations in the unvarying software of the law or government supervision of particular territorial dominion , [ that ] needs to occur or be use to all special territorial dominion . There ’s also a false narrative that we have been oppose to protect tax break as part of this . But in fact we are the largest taxpayer in Central Florida . We pay more taxes , specifically more real estate taxes , as a result of that extra dominion . And we all know there was no conjunct effort to do anything to break up what was once called Reedy Creek Special District until we spoke out [ against DeSantis ’ anti - LGBTQIA+ ] legislation . So this is plainly a matter of retaliation while the ease of the Florida particular district go forward lock basically as they were . ”
What ’s more , “ I think it ’s also of import for us to say our primary end has always been to be capable to continue to do exactly what we have been doing there , which is endow in Florida . We are gallant of the touristry diligence that we created and we want to preserve delivering the salutary potential experience for guests going onward , ” Iger concluded . “ We never wanted — and we certainly never expect — to be in the posture of induce to defend our business organization interest in Union court of justice , particularly having such a marvellous kinship with the state as we have had for more than 50 years . We employ M of people and , by the way , we pay up them above the lower limit wage , well above the minimum wage , dictated by the state of Florida . We also allow them with great benefits and barren education . So , I ’m going to finish what is obviously kind of a long resolution by require one doubt : does the state want us to invest more , apply more multitude , and pay more taxes — or not ? ”
Keep up with the conflict between Disney and the state of Florida — or rather , the creature political constabulary put in place to pick on the country ’s biggest source of tourist income and other economic contributions – here on io9 .
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Bob IgerCompaniesdisneyFloridaFlorida RepublicansWALT DISNEY WORLD
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