Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) on Thursday pushed back against the establishment narrative that Floridians would have to pay for Disney’s debt. DeSantis said dissolving Disney’s special tax and governing district was in response to the company injecting “pansexualism” into its programming for young audiences and attacking Florida parents.
DeSantis spoke to Fox News host Laura Ingraham after establishment outlets and Disney have claimed that Floridians would have to pay for Disney’s $1 billion in outstanding bond debt.
He said that his move to ax the Reedy Creedy Improvement District, Disney’s special tax and governing district, would level the playing field between Disney and other Florida companies. He emphasized that Floridians would not pay for Florida’s debt.
“It just simply ends with them being treated the same as every other company in Florida. They’re going to follow laws. They’re not going to have their own government. They’re going to pay their debts, pay their taxes,” the Florida governor said.
DeSantis emphasized that DeSantis has benefitted from the Reedy Creek corporate carveout, especially with its ability to issue its own bonds.
“They are Reedy Creek. It’s a fiction. They are paying money to run their operations … they will continue paying money to run their operations, and that will be true if the state is in charge of a district, if it’s dissolved to the locals, it doesn’t matter. That is going to continue to happen,” he continued.
The Florida conservative said Disney cannot continue to have its special corporate carevout while it attacks parents. The fight between Florida conservatives and Disney ratcheted up after the megacorporation attacked the Parental Rights in Education bill.
He said, “I am not comfortable having one company with their own government and special privileges, when that company has pledged itself to attacking the parents in my state.”
Earlier this month Disney corporate president Karey Burke, who has one “pansexual” child and one transgender child, said during company meeting that Disney is “targeting Gen Z and millennials” with LGBTQIA2S+ content.
DeSantis said that Disney has “injected pansexualism” and other LGBTQ ideologies into its programming. He hopes that Disney might walk back its move to inject leftist ideologies into its programs.
“When that company has very high up people talking about injecting pansexualism into programing for young kids, it’s wrong. Walt Disney would not want that. And so get back to the mission,” DeSantis said.
“Do what you did great. That’s why people love the company, and you’ve lost your way. Maybe this will be the wakeup call that they need to get back on track.”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.