Ron DeSantis vows to overturn Disney’s last-minute legal gambit to keep control of Florida special district

Florida Republicans will seek to void an agreement granting Disney nearly perpetual control of the land surrounding its Walt Disney World resort, state governor Ron DeSantis has said.

In a speech at a conservative Christian private university on Thursday, Mr DeSantis said his party would overturn Disney's legal gambit “come hell or high water" and may retaliate against it via new taxes and tolls.

The GOP firebrand signed a bill in February revoking the entertainment giant's self-governing district near Orlando, Florida, after bosses campaigned against his so-called "Don't Say Gay" law.

The Republican-backed law prohibits classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity for many young students, rejecting criticism and student protests that characterized the measure as discriminatory and misguided.

However, when Mr DeSantis's hand-picked appointees attempted to take control of the district in March, they found that their predecessors had quietly handed their powers to Disney itself until 21 years after the death of the last surviving descendants of King Charles III of England.

"Suffice it to say, the legislature's gonna void anything Disney did on the way out the door," Mr DeSantis told students at Michigan’s Hillsdale College.

"But now that Disney has reopened the issue, we're not just gonna void the development agreement they tried to do. We're gonna look at things like taxes on the hotels, tolls on the roads, developing some of the property that the district owns.

"What Disney has tried to do is, they've tried to say that they should be able to operate outside the context of our constitutional system in Florida. Now, we took this action prior to the election and won overwhelmingly. They are not superior to the people of Florida.

"So come hell or high water, we are going to make sure that that policy of Florida carries the day. They can keep trying to do things, but ultimately we're gonna win on every single issue involving Disney, I can tell you that."

Disney's “sweetheart deal” with the Sunshine State had stood since 1967, when it successfully lobbied for the creation of its own jurisdiction called the Reedy Creek Improvement District, promising to build the city of tomorrow.

That city never materialised, but the House of Mouse maintained its own local government, police department, and fire department for 56 years until its clash with Mr DeSantis over the Parental Rights in Education Act of 2022, which heavily restricts discussions of LGBT+ issues in public schools.

The reference to Charles III is a venerable legal manoeuvre known as a "royal lives clause", designed to get around rules against perpetual agreements by pinning a contract on the survival of a durable royal or political dynasty.