Disney loses control in Florida

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Disney losing control of its kingdom. Its own own private government kingdom.

In the 1960s, the state of Florida agreed to let Disney essentially establish its own private city, what came to be known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

The arrangement allowed the company to self-govern, deciding what to build and how to build it without the usual government red tape.

One expert described it as “A Vatican with mouse ears.” And we’ll hear from him in just a moment.

But Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-led legislature began to reexamine that arrangement after Disney delved into politics, opposing a parental rights bill at the behest of LGBT activists.

Now, Disney will no longer enjoy complete autonomy in that district.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Joining us now is Rick Foglesong. He’s a Professor Emeritus at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. And he is the author of Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando.

Professor, good morning!

RICK FOGLESONG, GUEST: Good morning!

BROWN: Well, we’ll get to the latest news on this. But, first of all, help us understand a little bit more. How did the Reedy Creek Improvement District come about?

FOGLESONG: Well, it came about like this: that the Disney company did not like how things worked in Anaheim, California where DisneyLand is located. They didn't like dealing with the City of Anaheim relying upon them to provide public services. And they didn't like the way in which Anaheim planned and zoned the area surrounding DisneyLand. So when they came here, they wanted to have their own government that would provide public services to themselves. And they wanted to be able to plan and zone the area surrounding the park and not be regulated by the surrounding counties. So they asked for these governmental powers and they got them from the state legislature because, hey, Florida was really glad to have Disney interested in them and was willing to give about anything that the company wanted.

BROWN: Let me ask you this: How is this different from local improvement districts that are in most cities around the country? It really sounds similar but is there a difference?

FOGLESONG: Well, it is different. Essentially, Disney has the same powers—actually more powers than a general purpose local government like the city of Orlando. They were granted the powers, for example, to build a nuclear power plant. That made sense in 1967. And the power to build an airport, the power to manufacture and distribute alcoholic beverages, if you can believe that. You might ask, well, why? Well, Disney asked for everything they could imagine they might somehow need down the road because they figured they had the leverage at the beginning—in 1967—to get from the state legislature, as I said before, about anything they wanted.

BROWN: So, Professor, is this an actual local government that has been essentially run by a private company?

FOGLESONG: Well, yeah, you could say that. The Reedy Creek improvement district is like a special purpose authority. They have elections and in these elections, property votes. It's one acre equals one vote. And the Disney company then elects to its Board of Supervisors, local notables, local business people in the Orlando area that are more or less beholden to the company.

BROWN: I'm thinking, then, that no other company has this kind of arrangement in the United States.

FOGLESONG: You know, I've given a lot of talks on this subject. And I've said that I thought that Disney had powers that no other entity did in the United States, certainly in the state of Florida, waiting for someone to correct me and tell me I was wrong. And I've never been told I was wrong in asserting that. So I think that may well be true that Disney has powers here that no other comparable company has.

BROWN: Very interesting. Okay, so that brings us to where we are today. Governor DeSantis and Disney leadership wound up butting heads over a political issue. And the Republican legislature decided to take another look at this unique arrangement.

There was some talk, I guess, about dissolving the district. But that's not what's happening, correct?

FOGLESONG: Well, that's right. That's not what's happening. The governor got a little ahead of himself because he said he was going to dissolve the district. Had he done that, then Reedy Creek would not have had the ability to tax the Disney company to pay off the $1 billion in bonds that had been purchased that were used to finance public works. So you might say that the state legislature saved the governor, got him out of a box, because Orange County taxpayers would have been forced to pay that $1 billion in bonded indebtedness. I would have had to pay some part of that in ad valorem taxes. So what the state legislature did with legislation written in conjunction with the governor was to do something short of dissolving Reedy Creek. They decided not to dissolve it. Rather, they took away some of the powers of Reedy Creek so that they could still issue bonds, tax-free municipal bonds, and thereby save the governor and save taxpayers here in this county from having to pay off that bonded indebtedness themselves.

BROWN: Looking ahead now, how will this affect Disney and the state of Florida going forward?

FOGLESONG: The Reedy Creek Improvement District will still exist by another name. It's just that the members of the board—the five members of the board—are not going to be people who were selected by the Disney company. Rather, this is very important, the governor—with the approval of the state legislature, State Senate, I should say—will appoint the members of that board. So in essence, the powers remain, but the people exercising those powers are not people beholden to the Disney company, but rather people selected by the governor and approved by the State Senate.

BROWN: Alright. We’ve been talking with Rick Foglesong, Professor Emeritus at Rollins College. Professor, thanks so much!

FOGLESONG: You're very welcome.

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