Niles: Florida’s leadership is a bad deal for Disney

Could Florida really take away Walt Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District?

The Walt Disney World Resort is so large that it has its own government, created by the Florida Legislature in the 1960s, as Walt Disney and the Disney company were planning their Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow south of Orlando.

Today, the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID) and its two cities — Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista — remain under The Walt Disney Company’s control, overseeing building codes and providing utility, fire protection, and road and transportation services for the resort.

But now Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican leaders in the state legislature are talking about dissolving the RCID and placing the Walt Disney World Resort under the administrative control of Florida’s Orange and Osceola counties, which Disney World straddles. It’s clearly intended as retribution for Disney speaking out against Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

The RCID is a product of a different time and purpose for the Walt Disney World Resort. What is now Disney World originally was supposed to be an actual city, filled with residents and independent businesses. It made sense that the community would have its own government.

Today, with only a handful of company-approved residents, the RCID allows Disney to maintain utilities and roads that meet its needs without having to go through county governments for approval or funding. It’s the epitome of a “business friendly” concession to a major landowner.

By attacking Disney to reporters, DeSantis and the Florida GOP could just be playing to their base, and they have no intention of disrupting Disney’s business in Florida. In fact, DeSantis’s bluster is actually helping Disney in many quarters. With the Republicans Disney funded now turning on the company, Disney looks less like a duplicitous co-conspirator and more like yet another target of Florida’s leadership.

Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is openly courting Disney on social media, trying to entice the company to return to California the 2,000 theme park management and design jobs it moved to Florida in pursuit of more than $500 million in tax breaks from the Sunshine State.

DeSantis is up for reelection this fall, after winning office in 2018 by a margin of just 0.4%. If he is betting that CEO Bob Chapek and Disney will not stand up to his bullying, allowing him and his Republican allies to build support among angry voters, now might be the time for Disney to resume campaign contributions in Florida — to DeSantis’ opponents.

After all, no matter how enticing it might seem, a deal is only as good as the people behind it.