DeSantis unleashes vengeance on Disney. This is the stuff of Nixon’s enemies list
In an act of pure vengeance, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used his powers last week to expand the legislative special session and strip Walt Disney World of the special taxing district that independently governs it.
Ever obedient, the Republican-controlled Legislature scrambled to do just what the governor ordered. Even a passionate sit-in protest on the floor of the House by Democrats regarding the other issue of the session — the unfair and unrepresentative congressional redistricting map also pushed through by DeSantis — did little to stop them as they rushed to prostrate themselves before their leader. Three days after the bill was filed, the House passed it, 70-38, and sent the bill to the governor. There was no debate.
It’s clear that the governor has been nursing a towering grudge against Disney ever since the company had the nerve to listen to its employees and — belatedly, but rightly — speak out against the “Don’t say gay” bill. Added to the affront, Disney also paused its political campaign contributions in Florida.
It may be that the taxing district, which has been around since 1967 and encompasses two cities, is an outdated concept. The district functions much like a government, with the ability to issue tax-free bonds, provide police and fire service and, notably, build its own nuclear power plant, something DeSantis seized on as shocking.
But there are ways to handle changing that long-established system, such as proposing legislation during the regular session — which happened in 2019, though the measure died — and allowing the issue to be fully aired, with a logical conclusion reached.
That would be thoughtful. That would be normal.
This? This is the stuff of Richard Nixon and his enemies list.
For those who may not remember, the country’s 37th president kept a list of enemies that was revealed during the Watergate scandal. Its purpose, according to Nixon’s assistant in a 1971 memo, was to plan “how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.”
MISUSE OF POWER
And that’s what’s going on here. DeSantis is using the levers of government to crush his enemy.
DeSantis is no fool. He’s covering his tracks, though with the most transparent of excuses, by saying that he wants the Legislature to consider getting rid of all special taxing districts that were enacted before 1968 and haven’t been reestablished since. The state has hundreds of special taxing districts; this measure affects Disney’s Reedy Creek
Improvement District and just five others, including the Sunshine Water Control District in Broward County.
But there are other, real-world ramifications to this action that constituents shouldn’t forget in the November elections. For instance, lawmakers said Reedy Creek has up to $2 billion in debt and other obligations. That debt will now be shouldered by taxpayers near Disney, about $2,400 or more per family of four in Orange and Osceola counties annually. Residents had no say in the matter. And lawmakers had almost no time to understand, let alone consider, what they were voting on. That amounts to political malpractice.
WENT FOR BIDEN
Maybe it’s easy to brush off that kind of extra tax burden when you’re doing just fine as a member of the Legislature, but it can be hard for families already contending with vast leaps in rent costs. And it’s probably no coincidence that both of those counties voted for Joe Biden for president in 2020.
Reedy Creek wasn’t the only Disney-targeted legislation jammed through in those same frenzied few days. (Remember that the next time legislators plead for understanding because they “just ran out of time” to do the state’s business.) Lawmakers also repealed an exemption tailor-made for Disney just last year, back when it still enjoyed favored-company status among lawmakers.
A 2021 “deplatforming” bill was approved that allowed the state to fine social media companies that ban political candidates, an effort to strike back at Big Tech after then-President Donald Trump was removed from Twitter. But there was a carve-out put into the bill that exempted theme park companies, which means it excluded Disney Plus. Not anymore.
DeSantis is fundraising amid all the noise, cashing in on his own chaos with practiced ease, not unlike his mentor, Trump. “If Disney wants to pick a fight, they chose the wrong guy,” he blustered in an email Wednesday.
NO REMORSE
Despite all of this — the rush to action, the lack of transparency, the unfair new tax burden on Central Florida residents, the boot-licking behavior of the Legislature, even the governor’s own words — Republicans continued to defend DeSantis’ strong-arm tactics.
House Speaker Chris Sprowls insisted that the House has long contemplated the Reedy Creek dissolution. He said Disney had been misusing its special status. But that doesn’t pass the smell test; none of it seemed to cause the slightest twinge of conscience when Disney donations were still flowing.
There’s no mistake here. In the war between Disney and DeSantis, this isn’t a grenade, it’s a precision missile strike, and it’s aimed right at Central
Florida.
Back in 1971, Nixon’s secret list had 20 names on it. Over the next few years, it grew to 576. They included business people, entertainers, Democratic donors, entertainers, journalists and, yes, members of Congress. The memo that revealed the existence of the list outlined ways to punish the offenders — “how we can best screw with them” — including “grant availability, federal contracts, litigation, prosecution, etc.” It specified that key members of the staff “should be requested to inform as to who they feel we should be giving a hard time,” an authoritarian play that anyone familiar with Cuba should recognize.
There was no need for an “elaborate mechanism or game plan,” the memo explained. Just the tools already available to the president and his staff to use – and abuse.
Now we have DeSantis’ frightening misuse of power. Targeting his political enemies through the power of his office must stop here. The Legislature may be a lost cause, but the ballot box is not.
Today, it’s Disney. Tomorrow, who knows?