The News Service of Florida shares Disney CEO’s comments to investors, recaps the ire of a disappointed appointee, and guesses how many budget turkeys the governor will veto.
Why this matters: Heck, how else are we going to learn what’s really happening in Tallahassee.
Dig Deeper:
Backroom Briefing: Disney ‘Playing Field’ Feud
Weekly political notes from The News Service of Florida
By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — Disney CEO Bob Iger indicated to investors this week that the entertainment giant isn’t ready to back away from its escalating conflict with Gov. Ron DeSantis.
During a second-quarter earnings call Wednesday, Iger said questions about risks to Disney’s future should be directed toward the state.
“Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people and pay more taxes or not?” Iger replied when asked how investors should view the short- and long-term impacts of DeSantis v. Disney.
The fight started after Disney opposed a 2002 state law that restricts instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation in schools. But it has mushroomed to include state and federal lawsuits related to a special district that has power over Disney property and a newly passed bill that would lead to state oversight of Disney’s iconic monorail system.
Most of the nearly one-hour earnings call involved the global company’s other properties and plans for its streaming platforms.
But when asked how investors should view conditions in Florida, Iger quickly defended a federal lawsuit the company filed in late April. He said the state is “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.”
Iger also questioned an assertion by DeSantis and others that a bill passed during a February special legislative session about the former Reedy Creek Improvement District was intended to create a “level playing field.” The bill gave DeSantis power to appoint leaders of the special district, which also was renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.
Iger acknowledged the Reedy Creek district, which was created in the 1960s and effectively gave Disney self-governance power, helped the company. But Iger said the state has also benefited as Disney pays more than $1.1 billion a year in state and local taxes, employs more than 75,000 people and plans to create another 13,000 jobs by investing $17 billion into Florida over the next decade.
Besides, Iger added, Disney isn’t the only beneficiary of a special taxing district.
“I mentioned 2,000 (special taxing districts),” Iger said. “The Daytona Speedway has one. So does The Villages, which is a prominent retirement community. And there are countless others. So, if the goal here is leveling the playing field … then a uniform application of the law of government oversight of special districts needs to occur and be applied to all special districts.”
FEELING LEFT OUT
DeSantis this year appointed Eddie Speir and a slate of other trustees to overhaul New College of Florida.
But after Speir was the only one of the appointees who did not receive Senate confirmation last week, he lashed out Wednesday at Richard Corcoran, New College’s interim president.
In a Twitter post, Speir said he had just found out he wasn’t confirmed, with the reasoning being, “I ruffled some feathers in the Senate.”
Speir, however, discounted the reasoning. Instead, he turned his ire on Corcoran, a former House speaker and DeSantis’ former education commissioner.
“I am sure that I did ruffle some feathers, but not enough to overcome a (Republican) supermajority in the Senate,” Speir tweeted. “I am confident it was @richardcorcoran working with his political allies to block me. It is easy to see why. I was resistant to being ‘handled and managed.’ I pushed to operate as an independent board. I was also very involved on campus, meeting with as many students, faculty, and staff on a daily basis. This meddling proved too much, even though most of our political and educational views align.”
Speir, a founder of the Christian school Inspiration Academy in Bradenton, was the only one of the seven trustees who traveled to Tallahassee for an April 24 meeting of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee. During the meeting, he described himself as having an “entrepreneurial background” and emphasized the importance of religion in his life during questions by committee members.
A day before the confirmation vote, Speir tweeted a thanks to “Florida Taxpayers” for $50 million in the budget (SB 2500) for New College, with a “special thanks” going to DeSantis and Corcoran for his “astute leadership.”
Of more than 325 people whose appointments were up this year to offices and boards, Speir was among 10 people who were not confirmed. Three of those people were board members of the business-recruitment agency Enterprise Florida, which lawmakers decided to eliminate.
LIGHT VETO INK?
After vetoing $3.13 billion from the budget and 11 bills last year, will DeSantis go a little lighter this year?
DeSantis suggested 2023 could be closer to the 2019, 2020 and 2021 sessions when five bills were vetoed each year.
“I think by and large, they (lawmakers) did a good job,” DeSantis said Friday, shortly after the legislative session ended.
But with the state flush with cash, he cautioned some issues might have gotten through the cracks.
“Sometimes it’s easier to do a budget when you don’t have a lot of money than when you do, because it’s, ‘How do you say no or whatever,’” DeSantis said. “So, we’re going to go through that. We’ve got a lot of legislation to do. Most of the stuff, obviously, people know I view favorably. I have not reviewed every bill that’s passed. There’s things that pop out at the end as you know. So we got a little bit of a runway left.”
As of Thursday morning, more than 275 more bills, including the record $117 billion budget (SB 2500) and a $1.3 billion tax package (HB 7063) for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, had not been formally delivered from the Legislature to DeSantis.
TWEEK OF THE WEEK: “Hearing @FlaDems Chair @NikkiFried finally ushered through historic reforms on how the party is governed, ending the weighted vote system that prevented the party from doing the things necessary to win for so long. While it is VERY arcane, it is a huge and necessary reform.” — Former Florida Democratic Party spokesman Eric Jotkoff (@Eric_Jotkoff).