Florida Man Lawsuit: DeSantis’ War on Disney Is Unconstitutionally Raising My Taxes

Three Florida residents claim in a new lawsuit that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ war with Disney over the state’s so-called Don’t Say Gay law is unconstitutionally raising their taxes.

The latest shot in that war happened in late April when DeSantis signed into law a bill dissolving Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District—a self-governing entity that gave the company the power to levy taxes and set their own land-use regulations on 25,000 acres in and around its Disney World theme park.

Those are some sweeping powers given to Disney by the Florida state government—powers DeSantis has argued are not justified given the company’s opposition to the law that limits discussion of sexual orientation in public schools.

“I’m just thinking to myself, you’re a corporation based in Burbank, California, and you’re going to marshal your economic might to attack the parents of my state,” said DeSantis when signing the bill eliminating the Reedy Creek district. “We view that as a provocation, and we’re going to fight back against that.”

The governor’s comments might be good culture war fodder. But the dissolution of Reedy Creek has presented some thorny fiscal and legal issues—in particular, the matter of who will have to pay off some $1 billion in the district’s debt.

Originally that debt was serviced by property taxes and other fees that Disney, through Reedy Creek, levied on itself. But with the district going away, that $1 billion now falls on the governments of neighboring Orange and Osceola counties. Property taxes could have to increase by as much as 25 percent to cover the new debt burden, according to one local official’s estimate.

Tuesday’s lawsuit, filed by Orange County and Osceola County residents Michael Foronda, Edward Foronda, and Vivian Gorsky in federal district court, argues that shifting this burden onto taxpayers is not just onerous, but unconstitutional. William Sanchez, the attorney who filed the lawsuit, is also a Democratic candidate running to replace Sen. Marco Rubio (R–Fla.).

“DeSantis and certain Republican lawmakers welcome a fight with Disney on this matter,” reads the complaint. But “they appear to not want to follow constitutional guidelines and previous legally enforceable agreements involving over $1 billion in bond iss