# Please explain DeSantis and Disneyland to me
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [March 4, 2023, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730 "2023-03-04T19:51:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2023, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/61 "2023-03-06T04:43:23Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#):
>
> I don’t think those are the same thing, though.
But every state has “special districts”, the 1900 that Florida have aren’t any different than what New York has. The different one is/was WDW. It is a **special** special district.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2023, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/62 "2023-03-06T04:57:39Z")
Well, it does seem that Florida has special districts, extra special districts, and super-duper special districts. Water/school/fire/etc. districts are everywhere. But I’m not aware of those Community Development Districts existing anywhere else. And RCID is a step above even those.
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2023, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/63 "2023-03-06T05:03:47Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> And RCID is a step above even those.
That’s for sure.
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2023, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/64 "2023-03-06T12:40:27Z")
Realistically, any attraction the size of the Disney World complex is going to have some kind of weird special relationship with public services. It’s so large that it’s always going to need to have its own police officers and firefighters and EMTs and freeway interchanges, and I don’t know that a separate municipal government that does its own provisioning is really any worse of an idea than saddling some random local electorate with the job of supervising it.
In a vacuum, a municipal-esque entity with a board accountable to the elected state authorities might even be the best idea for a huge facility that has no permanent population, though it’s obvious that DeSantis isn’t doing this for boring good-government reasons.
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### Author:  [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2023, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/65 "2023-03-06T12:58:26Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> Now Florida needs to repair the roads and all that (services provided by the state) on their own dim
This assumes that they will in fact do so. Is that likely?
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2023, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/66 "2023-03-06T13:01:24Z")
> [@Schnitte](#):
>
> There’s lots of language that you can use to describe it, so I’m not going to give a list, but the inflationary use of strong words like “fascist” is offensive to the victims of actual fascism.
Can you speak for all “victims of fascism”? Because I very much doubt they are a solid block in their thinking.
I know a few actual survivors of past fascism who use “fascist” to describe some of today’s GOP. Definitely, they’re allowed to make the comparison. But if the rest of us see some traits associated with fascism in a politician I don’t grok the argument that the term can’t be used.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2023, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/67 "2023-03-06T15:21:07Z")
I do not think there is any obligation for the state to do so. I suspect they may neglect that in order to annoy Disney. Just speculation on my part.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2023, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/68 "2023-03-06T15:23:42Z")
> [@velomont](#):
>
> Thanks all for the responses. And now it’s time for the mandatory rhetorical question: WTF is wrong with these people (that is, the GOPers)?
My belief is that there are two varieties of Republicans. Those like me that believe the Constitution should run this country and so under a Federalist system and fairly libertarian on social issues. We are a small minority anymore. Then you have those that believe the Bible should run this country and that everyone should live life as good Christians (at least their interpretation of “Christian”) even if they have to force you through legislation. They are of course the vast majority of the GOP now.
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### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2023, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/69 "2023-03-06T15:35:10Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#):
>
> BTW, nitpick on the thread title:
> Disneyland is in California.
> Disney _ **World** _ is in Florida.
As long as we are nitpicking, the full name of the resort complex in Florida is _ **Walt Disney World** _.
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### Author:  [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2023, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/70 "2023-03-06T16:18:42Z")
OK, not tryna be picky, but: “aver”?
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2023, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/71 "2023-03-06T20:35:15Z")
Yes. And that’s what those New York special districts mostly are. Besides school districts there are also several water districts. My kids used to attend schools in Lakeland School District, spread over several towns and two counties it presented problems in elections that didn’t conform to the regular political boundaries, but it was still an excellent school district while I was there. The main complaint had to do with the school taxes, they were considerably higher than for the portion of my town outside that district. I’ve heard the same things about water districts. Their boards get less notice than school boards, many people have no idea how to vote for the commissions or even that they exist. But tax rates are the only significant effect they have on people.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2023, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/72 "2023-03-06T21:54:29Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> It’s not like these “special districts” controlled by some large business are all that special. Florida has about 1900 of them.
(There’s actually a summary at the bottom!)
In other threads, I discussed how my family was in control of a city (Beverly Beach, FL) because of a large land purchase + development plan we were in charge of. We got out of the arrangement in 1979, 1980 - but because we sold the land. Would not surprise me if it is still in force - our mobile home park was the source for the cities water and sewage treatment, and it still is.
To Disney…
I would like to note that one of the reasons RD thinks Disney is vulnerable to this issue is the change in their business focus as represented on their annual report filings, starting in 2020.
If you look at the 2019 report…
> **[2019-Annual-Report.pdf](https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/app/uploads/2020/01/2019-Annual-Report.pdf)**
“Item 1. Business” (page 1) goes into a list of transactions and then a 27-page discussion of the various business units and investments made by Disney. Pretty standard stuff.
But look at 2020:
> **[2020-Annual-Report.pdf](https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/app/uploads/2021/01/2020-Annual-Report.pdf)**
OK, there’s a COVID disclaimer. But then there’s a 1.25 page talking about human capital… and diversity and inclusion… and other “woke mind virus” stuff (Jesus, I cannot believe I have to speak like this because of these goddamned children).
And this didn’t end, continuing in 2021, with this new section coming close to 2 pages, the specific D&I initiatives highlighted in bold:
> **[2021-Annual-Report.pdf](https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/app/uploads/2022/01/2021-Annual-Report.pdf)**
Lastly, 2022:
> **[2022-Annual-Report.pdf](https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/app/uploads/2023/02/2022-Annual-Report.pdf)**
LOL, they kinda took my advice:
> [@DeSantis's war on Disney](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desantiss-war-on-disney/963073/262):
>
> Disney’s Risk Assessment Model needs changing
>
> And, frankly, so does every other corporations in America.
>
> In all 10k’s there exists a section called “Risk Factors”, usually pretty early in the document - in the Disney 10-K it’s Item 1.a, on page 18. Disney’s is pretty significant, going on for 9 pages. I’d like to highlight two of them:
They didn’t exactly do _this_, but what they did was take the “Forward-Looking Statements” boilerplate which was, up to 2021, in the things around page 60… well, Disney execs expanded this from one paragraph to a full page and put it _in the front of the entire document_. Making FLS a preamble when it was largely an afterthought definitely indicates that the people in Disney are worried about investor and legal blowback as much as anything I’ve seen so far.
However, they still have the Human Capital/DE&I wording… but there are some changes. For example, you can find the following wording in the 2021 10k which has been removed from the 2022 10k:
> [@](#):
>
> Added an Inclusion Key to the core set of values to serve as a catalyst for culture change and strengthen DPEP’s traditional Four Keys, Safety, Courtesy, Show and Efficiency.
So the “Inclusion Key” has been removed. Anything else change?
Oh… under “Health, Family, and more benefits”…
> [@2021](#):
>
> Healthcare options aimed at improving quality of care while reducing out-of-pocket costs
> ◦ Child care programs for employees, including access to onsite/community centers, enhanced back-up care choices to include personal caregivers, child care referral assistance and center discounts, homework help and a variety of parenting educational resources
> ◦ Free mental and behavioral health resources, including on-demand access to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for employees and their dependents
> ◦ Two Centers for Living Well that offer convenient, on-demand access to board-certified physicians and counselors
In 2022… look at what they _added_:
> [@](#):
>
> Family care resources, such as childcare programs for employees, including access to onsite/community centers, enhanced back-up care choices to include personal caregivers, childcare referral assistance and center discounts, homework help, a variety of parenting educational resources and **a family building benefit supporting fertility treatments, adoptions or surrogacy**
The 2022 10k does not address the Reed Creek issue, btw. The next 10k will be issued sometime after October 1st, 2023. It may have been addressed in the 8k’s which are filed quarterly, but I’ve looked at this stuff enough for y’all, lol.
In conclusion:
1. There’s now a city with a bullshit fake city council in control of it and this will never end well.
2. There are indications in their SEC filings that Disney is concerned about the implications of this. I mean, the “this all may be bullshit” section _led_ the document!
3. Regardless, it can NOT be argued that “diversity isn’t what Disney does, they make movies, etc…” because Disney itself states explicitly, in their government filings, that diversity is key to their business model and plans for growth.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2023, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/73 "2023-03-07T00:53:43Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> By any reasonable standard, it’s actually Disney’s administrative district itself that’s semi-fascist. Merging of corporate and government power is one of the key pillars of fascism
A district doesnt really have much “government power”. Whatever they do is overidden by State and Federal law. Basically, they can do zoning.
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> It’s not like these “special districts” controlled by some large business are all that special. Florida has about 1900 of them.
>
> If a reformer wanted to get rid of all of them, I’d maybe agree that they have a point. But when someone wants to get rid of just one specific one, just because the business that controls it offended him…
Yep.
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> People live there. They have power plants, airports, etc.
Almost none. They have a backup plant. There is no airport.
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
>
> There is a credible argument that Disney—a private corporation that is not elected by residents or represents them in any democratic way—should never have been allowed to run what is essentially their own private fiefdom on Florida land,
There are many thousands of such all over America, you just are not aware of them.
> [@thorny\_locust](#):
>
> The areas they cover are also under the jurisdiction of a municipality.
Some have boards instead.
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> It turns the argument from “you’re doing the wrong thing” into “you’re doing the right thing for the wrong reasons”,
DeSantis has never made the argument that Special districts are wrong.
> [@aruvqan](#):
>
> How much does Disney bring in to Florida?
About Five Billion a year.
> [@thorny\_locust](#):
>
> Pretty much plutocracy enacted into law, isn’t that?
Most of those are land that no one lives on, just like the WDW land before Disney bought it.
If no one lives there, why cant the landowner do what they want, withing State and Federal laws?
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### Author:  [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2023, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/74 "2023-03-07T01:01:56Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> Some have boards instead.
Apparently some do, in Florida. Not in NY, I don’t believe.
That is, towns have town boards, and so on. But they’re elected – by one person one vote (at least in theory), not by amount of property owned.
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> If no one lives there, why cant the landowner do what they want, withing State and Federal laws?
If they’ve carefully carved out the area people do live in, despite its being surrounded by the district, in order to be able to do whatever they want: seems to me that that’s a problem. The people living in that carved-out area must be massively affected by what’s happening in the district.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2023, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/75 "2023-03-07T01:04:06Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> DeSantis has never made the argument that Special districts are wrong.
That’s not the point. Obviously he’s a hypocrite, and I doubt he has any real beliefs at all. But it means he has a ready-made response to any criticism: what, you’re defending the megacorp now, the one with their own hand-picked board that answers only to themselves? Looks hypocritical.
Now, I don’t know if DeSantis has had to pull this out yet; I doubt it, because currently he can just paint the opposition as a woke mob. But there may come a time where he has to answer questions more seriously, and so it’s helpful if he can defend his actions on their own merits.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2023, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/76 "2023-03-07T01:10:44Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#):
>
> Apparently some do, in Florida. Not in NY, I don’t believe.
>
> That is, towns have town boards, and so on. But they’re elected – by one person one vote (at least in theory), not by amount of property owned.
In CA also. They are often not one person one vote, but instead one property owner one vote.
This issue is a red herring brought on by not understanding how such entities work, and how common they are.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2023, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/77 "2023-03-07T01:17:38Z")
I still want to know what term you would have us use instead of fascist, because complaining about the term without offering viable substitutes isn’t helpful at all.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2023, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/78 "2023-03-07T01:55:59Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> In CA also. They are often not one person one vote, but instead one property owner one vote.
One local Stockton CA lighting district gives property owners weighted votes based on how much street frontage they have. The district covers maintaining fancier than normal streetlights and the idea at formation was that the more street frontage you had, the more you were paying into the district and the more you were affected by it.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2023, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/79 "2023-03-07T02:28:29Z")
I remember a news story a few years back, from some state where the rule was that Economic Improvement Districts or whatever they’re called are governed by the vote of all of the inhabitants, unless there were no inhabitants, in which case they were governed by the vote of all of the property owners. And the business owners in the area were all set to elect their board… until someone discovered that there was one single college student living in a loft apartment within the district boundaries, and that she could therefore unilaterally decide everything about the district.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2023, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-desantis-and-disneyland-to-me/980730/80 "2023-03-07T03:09:00Z")
Was it [this one,](https://www.kbia.org/news/2015-08-31/anomaly-postpones-columbia-business-loop-cid-election?_amp=true) or has this happened so often that it might be someone else somewhere else?
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