Thursday, April 21, 2022

A Solution to the Florida Disney Kerfuffle

After Disney dared to counter-virtue-signal Florida governor Ron DeSantis on his "let's call everyone groomers, that will get the base out this November" bill, DeSantis went to full-on war, asking the legislature to repeal Disney's "special taxing district."

The "special taxing district" basically treats Disney-owned land in Florida as its own polity. Disney levies the taxes, provides the law enforcement, handles zoning/permits, etc.

What Florida got in return for that was a crap ton of tourist dollars pouring into Orlando specifically, and Florida more generally, for decades.

Now it looks like the deal may be off.

I've heard some suggest that Disney should pull up stakes and move, but that doesn't seem very realistic given the big investment they have in Disney World, Epcot, etc.

It would also be terrible for Florida.

But there's a way for Disney to keep things pretty much the way they are, minus a bunch of direct tax revenue from Disney itself to the state of Florida, but not destroying all the surrounding hanger-on tourism:

Disney should simply secede from Florida.

Not shut down. Not move. Simply declare that its property is no longer part of Florida. And maybe raise some taxes to put an army in the field if DeSantis wants to keep doubling down.

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