Governor Ron DeSantis should be careful whom he picks on. Not only did Disney outsmart DeSantis and retain control of DisneyWorkd, but its CEO announced at a shareholder meeting in California that Disney plans to grow in Florida. He also rapped DeSantis for trying to punish Disney for exercising its constitutional right to free speech.
The Orlando Sentinel reported:
The Walt Disney Co. plans to invest $17 billion in Walt Disney World over the next 10 years and create 13,000 new jobs, CEO Bob Iger said Monday, as he accused Gov. Ron DeSantis of being vindictive over Disney's response to the so-called "don't say gay" law last year….
Disney World will host 50 million visitors this year, and its planned expansion will bring even more guests and employees to the state in the years to come, along with generating more taxes, Iger said.
"Our point on this is that 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, and I'll just leave it at that," he said….
During the company's annual meeting, Iger also said Disney loves Florida and has heavily invested in the state over the past 50 years in its expansion of the Disney World resort, as the state's largest taxpayer and through its charitable actions.
The state's relationship with Florida has "kind of been a two-way street," Iger said.
But that changed last year when former CEO Bob Chapek spoke out against Florida's Parental Rights in Education legislation, which restricts discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in early-grade classrooms. That drew DeSantis' ire and led to a law dissolving of the company's special land use, utilities and public service district, Reedy Creek.
"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," Iger said.
He said DeSantis dissolved Reedy Creek "in effect to seek to punish a company for its exercise of a constitutional right."
"And that just seems really wrong to me, against any company or individual but particularly against the company that means so much to the state that you live in," he added.
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