Disney and Florida governor Ron DeSantis finalized a $17 billion expansion deal on Wednesday, ending a years-long feud over the company’s political activism.
The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, an oversight entity created by DeSantis, voted unanimously at its board meeting on Wednesday to approve a 15-year, $17 billion expansion agreement for Disney World, the company’s iconic resort complex near Orlando, Florida. Disney will be spending at least $8 billion on expansion over the first ten years of the agreement.
Disney agreed to allocate at least 50 percent of its overall expenditures to Florida businesses to grow the state’s economy. In addition, Disney will be spending at least $10 million on affordable housing as part of the agreement.
“Walt Disney World is inextricably intertwined in the fabric of the state of Florida, and the success of Walt Disney World is the success of Central Florida and vice versa,” board member Brian Aungst Jr. said at the meeting.
The board’s vice chairman Charbel Barakat thanked DeSantis for his “tireless efforts” and called the agreement a “monumental step” to ensure Florida’s continued prosperity. National Review has reached out to Disney for comment.
“Disney and the state of Florida continue working well together under CFTOD’s new governance structure, and we are pleased to see CFTOD and Disney reach a new development agreement that secures up to $17 billion in future investment in the state of Florida. This agreement is a big win for Central Florida and will lead to numerous jobs and improved guest experiences,” DeSantis’s communications director Bryan Griffin told NR.
The DeSantis-Disney feud kicked off in 2022 when the entertainment giant began lobbying against, and publicly criticizing, the Republican-backed Parental Rights in Education bill. Dubbed the “don’t say gay” bill by critics, the legislation barred teachers from including lessons on sexuality and gender in their classroom curricula. In response to the company’s corporate activism, DeSantis signed legislation to dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a special governing body which had enjoyed special tax breaks and allowed Disney to oversee economic development and administrative functions in the Disney World area for more than five decades.
Before a DeSantis-appointed board took over for the lame duck Reedy Creek Improvement District last March, the Disney-controlled board handed control of the district’s development over to Disney in what the company claimed was a permanent change that could not be undone by the new board.
Media reported that DeSantis had been humiliated and “out-negotiated by Mickey Mouse.”
DeSantis responded, calling the move illegal, and saying “that’s not going to fly” and that Disney is “going to live under the same laws as everybody else.”
In March, Disney and DeSantis reached a settlement in which Disney agreed to drop its lawsuits against the creation of the new oversight board and acknowledge that the last-minute changes were “null and void.”