Today Governor DeSantis signed into law a bill that seals his hostile takeover of Reedy Creek. Below is Representative Eskamani’s response:
“It’s absolutely wild to see a self-proclaimed capitalist like DeSantis celebrate the government takeover of a private board which is exactly what the Governor just did today. He and many of his speakers also lied throughout the press conference. As we’ve seen via the House Floor, from my Q&A, and from the bill itself Reedy Creek was not dissolved. All this bill does is rename Reedy Creek and allow Governor DeSantis to appoint hostile conservative cronies to a new board. Disney still maintains the same tax breaks — but their First Amendment rights have been suppressed, and it sends a message to any private individual or company that if you don’t purport to what the Governor wants, then you’ll be punished.
It’s important to note that the bulk of today’s appointees are extreme and political donors. For example, Martin Garcia is one of the people DeSantis’ office used to dig for dirt on Andrew Warren in their efforts to remove him from office. He’s also a major political donor, who gave DeSantis $50,000 last year. Ron Peri is the founder of a far-right Christofascist organization called The Gathering. Bridget Ziegler is wife of RPOF Chairman Christian Ziegler and known to subscribe to anti-LGBTQ+ policies in her role as a school board member in Sarasota County.
If DeSantis actually wants to end the corporate kingdom then he should support policies like HB769/SB1144 that close corporate tax loopholes that companies like Disney exploit. But this was never about tax policy or corporate accountability — this was always about DeSantis and his sick agenda to target already marginalized people, and silent dissent.”