The Republican-led Florida legislature on Thursday passed a bill requested by Gov. Ron DeSantis to repeal the Walt Disney World Special Area in Florida.
The swift approval of the bill – it was introduced three days ago, during a special session convened for another reason – was condemned by the State Democrats. Senator Tina Polski (D) called it a “huge decision based on the management of malice and revenge”.
The House of Representatives did not discuss the bill after Democrats held a sitting meeting to protest the map commissioned by DeSantis, which redraws Florida’s congressional districts and halves the number of minority access areas. House Speaker Chris Sprules (right) said that if MPs could not be “citizens”, he would cancel the debate and go straight to the vote, which he did.
Disney’s law will dissolve the entertainment giant’s Reedy Creek Improvement District, which was founded in 1967 after Walt Disney bought 40 square miles of land in Central Florida to build the Magic Kingdom. Disney lobbyists said the project was too massive for local authorities to handle, so lawmakers gave Disney the power to manage development as a quasi-government agency.
The law came into force only in June 2023, giving local authorities near Disney 14 months to decide how to manage and pay for public services on the huge property, such as road maintenance and wastewater treatment.
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