Mickey Cancelled

The Republican-led Florida legislature on Thursday passed a bill to cancel the special tax district of Walt Disney World in the state, a decision with billion-dollar implications for the company and the communities that surround the theme park.

The House vote came a little over 48 hours after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called on lawmakers to revoke the 55-year-old provision. It followed weeks of public acrimony between DeSantis and Disney over the company’s opposition to a Florida law limiting how educators discuss LGBTQ issues in the classroom.

The bill was passed with no debate in a rushed party-line vote on the floor, and its impact is still unclear. A legislative staff analysis of the proposal was only a page and a half long, and stakeholders, including the counties that house the sprawling Disney entertainment complex, didn’t have time to do their own analyses.

“People are definitely worried. This is going to be a major disrupter in our community, and nobody has had the chance to figure out exactly what that will look like,” said Rep. Anna Eskamani (D), whose district includes parts of Orange County, where most of the Disney property in Florida is located. “Everything about this reflects the fact that we have a governor who is a bully who punishes those that oppose him.”

Disney employs nearly 80,000 workers at its Florida location, the most popular theme park in the world. Its creation helped lure other attractions to the area, transforming a community of orange groves into a booming tourism industry with an estimated economic impact of more than $75 billion a year.