Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has said a lot of things about The Walt Disney Company due to his ongoing war on woke and his vendetta against the company. This time, it’s Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger‘s turn, as he used the Q2 earnings call to set the record straight, debunking the wild claims the governor has made during the past few months.
Variety reported that Iger shared his side of the Disney vs. DeSantis war after he was asked about Disney’s future operations in the state while clashing with the governor. He shared his stance about the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which sparked the war between Disney and DeSantis, and clarified that Disney doesn’t have “special privileges” and was exercising its right to free speech.
“Regarding Florida, I have a few things I want to say about that bill,” Iger said. “First of all, the case that we filed last month made our position and the facts very clear. This is about one thing and one thing only, and that’s retaliating against us for taking a position about pending legislation. And we believe that in us taking that position, we are merely exercising our right to free speech. Also, this is not about special privileges, or a level playing field, or Disney in any way using its leverage around the state of Florida.”
Iger then brought up Disney World’s history as a special taxing district and how the current government wants to strip or review the Reedy Creek Improvement Act. According to Iger, The Walt Disney Company isn’t the only special district in Florida. He claimed that there are 2000 special districts in the state. One example he shared was the Daytona International Speedway. He also claimed that the DeSantis government misled the public by not addressing how Disney World benefited Florida throughout its over 50-year history.
“But since there’s been a lot said about special districts and the arrangement that we had, I want to set the record straight on that, too. There are about 2,000 special districts in Florida, and most were established to foster investment in development. We were one of them. It basically made it easier for us, and others by the way, to do business in Florida. And we built a business that employs, as we’ve said before, over 75,000 people and attracts tens of millions of people to the state.
“So while it’s easy to say that the Reedy Creek special district, which was established for us over 50 years ago, benefited us, it’s misleading to not also consider how much Disney benefited the state of Florida. And we’re not the only company operating a special district. I mentioned the Daytona Speedway has one, a prominent retirement community the Villages, and there are countless others. So if the goal here is leveling the playing field and the uniform application of the law, government oversight of special districts needs to occur or be applied to all special districts.”
Iger also debunked one of the biggest false claims made by DeSantis, which was The Walt Disney Company doesn’t pay its fair share of taxes due to Reedy Creek. The CEO claimed that it was a false narrative that was made against the company and revealed that they paid over $1 billion in state and local tax last year.
“There’s also a false narrative that we’ve been fighting to protect tax breaks. But in fact, we’re the largest taxpayer in Central Florida, paying over $1 billion in state and local taxes last year alone. We pay more taxes, specifically more real estate taxes, as a result of that special district, and we all know there was no concerted effort to do anything to dismantle what was once called Reedy Creek special district until we spoke out on the legislation.”
The Disney CEO believes that all of this is due to retaliation from the DeSantis government. The governor isn’t interested in targeting the other special districts in the state, only Disney. Iger used this opportunity to share how proud he is that Disney’s able to help in Florida’s tourism industry.
“So this is plainly a matter of retaliation, while the rest of the Florida special districts continue operating basically as they were. I think it’s also important for us to say our primary goal has always been to be able to continue to do exactly what we’ve been doing there, which is investing in Florida. We’re proud of the tourism industry that we created and we want to continue delivering the best possible experience for guests going forward.”
The CEO announced plans to invest $17 billion over the next few years and reminded everyone that they employ thousands of people and pay them above minimum wage, as well as provide benefits such as free education. Iger finishes his statement by asking Florida if it wants to continue this relationship that benefited not only the state, but also the residents.
“We never wanted, and we certainly never expected, to be in the position of having to defend our business interests in federal court, particularly having such a terrific relationship with the state as we’ve had for more than 50 years. And as I mentioned on our shareholder call, we have a huge opportunity to continue to invest in Florida. I noted that our plans are to invest $17 billion over the next 10 years, which is what the state should want us to do.
“We operate responsibly. We pay our fair share of taxes. We employ thousands of people and, by the way, we pay them substantially above the minimum wage dictated by the state of Florida. We also provide them with great benefits and free education. So I’m going to finish what is obviously kind of a long answer by asking one question: Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people and pay more taxes, or not?”
Ever since Disney shared its stance on DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” bill, the Republican governor has implemented several changes designed to target Disney. The governor once announced plans to build a prison next to Disney World, which led to the company promoting an LGBT+ night event in June, as well as a gay rights summit. While DeSantis was able to take over the board that oversaw Disney’s operations, the House of Mouse was prepared and created a loophole that stripped the DeSantis appointed Board Members from their power.
DeSantis has said plenty of things about Disney and claimed he’s doing it due to his “war on woke.” Now, Iger has fought back, with claims and evidence proving that what DeSantis is doing would hurt Florida even further.
