On Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary denied the recent reports that the governor might be considering making a U-Turn and backing down to Disney in the fight between the governor and woke corporation, saying that DeSantis doesn’t do such things and that the repeal of Disney’s special tax privileges is moving full steam ahead.
The claim of the U-Turn by DeSantis came from the Financial Times, a British news publication, which said in a tweet that “Florida lawmakers are working on plans to reverse a move that would strip Disney of its right to operate a private government around its theme parks, potentially resolving the fallout from the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ controversy“.
Responding and hitting back hard at the claim that DeSantis and his allies in the Republican-dominated Florida legislature were backing down to woke Disney, Team DeSantis Press Secretary Bryan Griffin said
[email protected] does not make “U-turns.” The governor was right to champion removing the extraordinary benefit given to one company through the RCID. We will have an even playing field for businesses in Florida, and the state certainly owes no special favors to one company.
Disney's debts will not fall on the taxpayers of Florida. A plan is in the works and will be released soon.
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) December 2, 2022
The story came out shortly after now-former Disney CEO Bog Iger apologized to Disney employees for getting the company involved in the squabble during a town hall meeting on Monday, saying that he was “sorry to see us get dragged into [the] battle.”
Continuing, Iger said “What I can say [is] the state of Florida has been important to us for a long time and we have been very important to the state of Florida. That is something I’m extremely mindful of and will articulate if I get the chance.”
Bryan Griffin’s statement on the U-Turn matter came as doubts were being sown about whether DeSantis would actually follow through on the tax hike for woke Disney. In addition to the Financial Times report, Florida attorney and Twitter personality Anthony Sabatini drew attention to the possible retreat, saying:
BREAKING: Florida is preparing to cave & give Disney World—the most woke left-wing company in the world—a special tax district that’s essentially the most corrupt form of corporate welfare
Sad to see weak-kneed GOP politicians get overpowered on this
I warned about this a couple weeks ago
This is exactly what GOP politicians to when you’re not watching them
That was a follow up tweet to one he posted on November 21st in which he said:
Keep your eyes on Florida & the Disney situation
Disney is working behind the scenes to get its entire corrupt tax district back (which it should never have had)
Florida Legislature will likely cave & give Disney what it wants
Hearing rumors that a deal has already been cut
Sabatini also claimed that Team DeSantis was still willing to compromise with Disney in a follow up series of tweets on the 2nd, saying:
Update: DeSantis communications team released a statement that DID NOT REFUTE that Florida is making a “compromise deal” with Disney to give Disney what it wants
The statement also DID NOT REFUTE any element of the
@FT
story from today except the use of the metaphor “u-turn”/The special district is scheduled to dissolve on June 1, ‘23
There is NO reason for a compromise with Disney
The only amendment needed is requiring Reedy Creek to have a “winding down” plan to pay down its remaining debt
Instead, Disney will likely get 99.9% of its power back
So far, however, DeSantis has not backed down, and the plethora of eyes on him now that there are rumors that he might could push him to take a harder stance with he woke corporation.
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