It is a feud that has garnered
nationwide attention. The battle between Florida Governor Ron
DeSantis and Disney takes a new turn. The House of Mouse now
taking legal action against the governor. Disney, the parent
company of ABC, filing a lawsuit against Florida Governor Ron
DeSantis. The Mouse House dealing another blow to Florida
Governor Ron DeSantis, Disney ditching its plan to build a
billion-dollar office complex in Lake Nona. Pinning one of the
world's most beloved companies.. This is about one thing and one
thing only and that's retaliating against us for
taking a position about pending legislation. Against one of the
nation's most popular governors.. You're a corporation
based in Burbank, California, and you're gonna martial your
economic might to attack the parents of my state? So just
what exactly is behind this feud? What's at stake for both
Ron DeSantis and Bob Iger? And which side will ultimately come
out on top? The feud between Ron DeSantis
and Disney really started in 2022 when the company came
forward against the so called "Don't Say Gay" bill which
prohibited Florida public schools from teaching sexual
orientation to kids in kindergarten through third
grade. We will make sure that parents can send their kids to
school to get an education, not an indoctrination. Then-Disney
CEO Bob Chapek largely remained silent at first, declining to
take a stance. But after mounting public pressure, he
released a company-wide memo to employees writing in part, as we
have seen time and again, corporate statements do very
little to change outcomes or minds. And that, quote, the best
way for our company to bring about lasting change is through
the inspiring content we produce. That memo was not well
received at Disney. There was immediate pushback, and it was
all over social media. It was basically seen as though Bob
Chapek had not taken a stand for the LGBTA community. After
facing intense backlash for his initial statement, Bob Chapek
released a second statement days later, saying in part, it is
clear that this is not just an issue about a bill in Florida,
but instead yet another challenge to basic human rights.
You needed me to be a stronger ally in the fight for equal
rights. And I let you down. I am sorry. When he did that and sort
of waffled a little bit, you know, in terms of messaging.
DeSantis pounced on it and he called Disney woke. Our policy
is going to be based on the best interest of Florida citizens,
not on the musing of woke corporations. And in April of 2022 DeSantis
took things a step further, signing a bill into law that
would officially strip Disney of a special self-governing status
in the area around its Orlando theme parks, then known as the
Reedy Creek Improvement District. Since then, Bob Chapek
has been fired as the Disney CEO and Bob Iger has returned.
That's where the DeSantis-Iger feud begins. With CEO Bob Iger
back at the helm, Disney began to go on the offensive, filing a
lawsuit in federal court in April against Florida Governor
Ron DeSantis and other officials alleging a "targeted campaign of
government retaliation." About a year ago the company took a
position on pending Florida legislation. And while the
company may have not handled the position that it took very well,
a company has a right to freedom of speech just like individuals
do. And obviously in taking the position, the governor got very
angry about the position Disney took and seems like he's decided
to retaliate against us, including the naming of a new
board to oversee the property and the business, in effect to
seek to punish a company for its exercise of a constitutional
right. In response, less than a week after Disney's lawsuit, the
newly appointed local governing board voted in May to sue Disney
in state court. And in the latest turn of events, Disney
just announced it would not be moving forward with plans to
build a roughly $1 billion office complex in Lake Nona. Disney is the largest taxpayer
in Florida. It has said it plans on investing $17 billion in the
coming years, in the greater Walt Disney World theme park
area. It pays more than a billion dollars each year in
taxes to Florida. We have over 75,000 employees which I noted
in my opening, countless thousands of indirect jobs have been created. About 50
million visitors will go through our gates this year alone, about
8 million of them from outside the US. And we are the largest
taxpayer in the state. Superficially, that would be a
bizarre punching bag. Like that's not the entity that you
want to make your enemy because if you're the governor of
Florida, you're so reliant on Disney and also just in general,
like, you really want to pick a fight with Walt Disney World?
But Ron DeSantis did just that, giving oversight of the special
district to his own appointees, known as the Central Florida
Tourism Oversight District. The reason why the legislature had
to act was not because of anything we did. It was
basically born out of Disney's arrogance, that they would be
able to subcontract around the duly enacted laws of the state
of Florida. That's wrong. The special tax district where
Disney is located is really now governed by a board of all
DeSantis appointees. These people were handpicked by the
governor himself to really rein in Disney's self governing
abilities at it. So the board itself is meant to really take
on the company through a government entity. And so far
there have been threats of possibly building a prison next
to Disney, all after the company came forward against the so
called "Don't Say Gay" bill. I think the reason this is
happening is that Ron DeSantis is not your typical governor.
He's planning on running for president in 2024. And he's
decided that he's going to make these culture wars a major part
of his presidential campaign. Bob Iger for his part has tried
to set the record straight regarding special districts in
Florida. This is not about special privileges, or a level
playing field, or Disney in any way using its leverage around
the state of Florida. There are about 2000 special districts in
Florida. And most were established to foster investment
in development, where we were one of them. It basically made
it easier for us, and others by the way, to do business in
Florida. So while it's easy to say that the Reedy Creek special
district that was established for us over 50 years ago
benefited us, it's misleading to not also consider how much
Disney benefited the state of Florida. And we're also we're
not the only company operating a special district. I mentioned
2000, the Daytona Speedway, it has one. So do The Villages,
which is a prominent retirement community and there are
countless others. The stakes now are much higher,
because they're in court in two different jurisdictions. They're
in federal court where Disney sued, and they're in state court
where the board that was appointed by DeSantis has sued
Disney. Disney has a pretty strong case. Just on the
practicalities of it. DeSantis and the Florida legislature are
trying to punish Disney for speaking up very mildly about a
law in Florida. Disney is actually making several
different arguments, no matter what is ordinarily okay, you
can't take an action to punish a private entity because of its
speech. As for Governor DeSantis, the state's argument
may be on shaky legal ground. The argument that they have is
that Disney always got special treatment. Whether or not that's
true, to revoke it as retaliation for you know,
expressing a political opinion is a serious problem. And if a
court were to embrace a broader rule, which is, sure, go ahead
and legislate whenever you don't like what a company is saying, I
think that would be a very strong signal, among other
things, to businesses, you know, stay out of Florida. But none of
this has ever deterred the governor, in part because of his
strong support amongst Republicans in the Sunshine
State. I'm definitely on DeSantis aside, go woke, go
broke. I think that renewing our annual passes shows that we're
supporting them. And I'm not supporting them or their beliefs
in what they're trying to do. There are other polls that have
suggested that this fight against Disney is part of the
Republican Party's fight against you know, culture wars, and
getting involved with things like that is actually a real net
positive for Republican primary voters. In this recent March
poll conducted by the University of North Florida, DeSantis
enjoyed a much higher favorability rating when
compared to Disney among the GOP base. About 87% of Republican
voters said they found DeSantis to be either very favorable or
somewhat favorable. When the same poll of voters was asked
about Disney, only about 27% said they found the company
either very favorable or somewhat favorable. So if and
when and likely when Ron DeSantis runs for president,
this battle with Disney could end up helping him in the
primary. But questions remain.. how will this translate
to the general electorate? Even if he pulls this off and
uses this kind of culture war against Disney, as a way to
become the Republican nominee for president, there's still a
lot of questions as how this is this going to really appeal to
independent voters swing state voters in a general election? This is more of a political
issue than it is a Disney financial or business issue.
This isn't particularly going to be a stock mover for Disney, it
is definitely an annoyance. Iger believes that he has the
moral high ground here. And in past comments, he's been very
clear about how he believes that Disney was retaliated against
for expressing a political opinion on the Florida
legislation. Any action that thwarts those
efforts simply to retaliate for a position the company took,
sounds not just anti-business, but it sounds anti-Florida. DeSantis, meanwhile, is showing
no signs of backing down. We fought very hard for
children. We have a fundamental disagreement in this state in
terms of what we think is appropriate for children and
what the people in Burbank, California think is appropriate
for children. So you may have to get into a
little bit of a legal machinations here on how they're
going to resolve this and what the ultimate long game is here
for Disney. From a political standpoint, Disney may
gain just as many points as DeSantis feels like he's gaining
by not making this go away. For now, as both sides wait for
the legal process to play itself out the war of words between the
Florida governor and Disney continue. We're not going to let them try
to impose the idea of gender fluidity on our kids,
particularly our young elementary school kids. And if
Disney doesn't like that, well here I stand I am not backing
down one inch. I am going to do what's right. And we are going
to make sure we're standing up for our children. We operate responsibly, we pay
our fair share of taxes, we employ thousands of people. So
I'm going to finish what is obviously kind of a long answer
by asking one question: does the state want us to invest more,
employ more people, and pay more taxes, or not?
