For a variety of reasons, perhaps not the least of which is fair treatment under the law, Disney does not deserve a return to any sort of special tax district status it once held in the state of Florida.
After the company went woke over the past few years and then injected itself into the fight over the misnamed “Don’t Say Gay” bill that passed the Florida legislature, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed another bill stripping the company of its special tax status it had enjoyed for decades. The message was clear from DeSantis: if you’re going to get political rather than simply selling entertainment and Mickey Mouse ice cream bars, then the state will no longer be providing any special incentives to do business here.
The original tax plan was a sweetheart deal from the get-go designed to let Disney launch a global theme park headquarters and bring more tourism to Florida. On both counts, it worked. As for whether Disney will be able to grovel hard enough to recoup its lost tax district status, DeSantis says no way:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis denied a report Friday that the state was considering reversing its decision to dissolve Disney’s special governing district near Orlando.
In a statement, a spokesperson for DeSantis said the governor “does not make U-turns.”
“The governor was right to champion removing the extraordinary benefit given to one company through the Reedy Creek Improvement District,” the governor’s office said. “We will have an even playing field for businesses in Florida, and the state certainly owes no special favors to one company. Disney’s debts will not fall on the taxpayers of Florida. A plan is in the works and will be released soon.”
Earlier Friday, the Financial Times reported Florida lawmakers considered keeping in place the special governing district that encompasses Disney World as Disney CEO Bob Iger returned to lead the company.
Good for the Governor. Disney has thrown in with the woke crowd and begun injecting unnecessary sexuality into its children’s entertainment. Why on earth would anyone continue to kowtow to a company that wants to kick parental rights from the classroom and teach sexuality to kindergarteners? It’s insane, actually, for a family-friendly company to commit brand suicide as Disney did.
What Disney really succumbed to was pressure from within as the “3% of activists” complaining on the internal Slack channel started getting testy. Watch this CNBC exchange from yesterday and it’s clear why the company has quickly turned the corner, put longtime Disney leader Bib Igor back in charge, and is now working to restore its tattered image:
.@ArthurBrooks on corporations going woke:
"We need to tell CEOs…3% of your employees are activists…blowing up your Slack demanding that you get involved in a culture war and make political statements. Don't do it. The rest of your employees are feeling bullied as well…" pic.twitter.com/pGCm5AzKXY
— Will Hild (@WillHild) November 30, 2022
The small handful of people, very small, that would welcome more overt sexuality injected into children’s programming may be loud but they’re practically a statistical blip in the universe of Disney fans and customers. Furthermore, Disney movies have always contained messages of inclusion and acceptance for people of different backgrounds without getting explicitly sexual in nature. What was wrong with those messages while leaving parents to worry about the birds and the bees?
Bravo to DeSantis for not backing down simply because Disney wants to sort of apologize for trying to bully the Florida legislature to undo a very popular law that would prevent teaching sexuality to elementary school kids.
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