As I’ve noted on Twitter, the facts and law in the Ron DeSantis versus Disney standoff are strongly on the side of The Walt Disney Company.
Contrary to what we’ve heard from the Florida governor and Republican officials, Walt Disney World’s prior arrangement, in context, wasn’t all that remarkable, while the current scheme undeniably treats them unfairly relative to other large amusement parks and businesses. I plan to write a more in-depth piece on this in the near future.
In the meantime, Governor DeSantis and the Florida Legislature continue to dig a hole for themselves, passing more legislation that makes it clear this entire episode amounts to targeted retaliation for political speech and isn’t some principled effort to make everyone live by the same rules.
The latest salvo comes in the form of HB 1305, a transportation bill incorporating a punitive amendment aimed squarely at the Walt Disney World Monorail System and the Disney Skyliner. The bill, which passed the Senate on Tuesday and the House on Wednesday, barely attempts to disguise its true intentions.
Existing Florida law prescribes minimum safety standards and potential state-conducted safety reviews for fixed-guideway transportation systems that are governmentally owned or receive state funding. Using thinly veiled language, the newly passed legislation extends application of these rules to one, and only one, private entity with systems that aren’t financed by state funds: Disney.
If this amendment were genuinely about public safety, of course, there would be no sense in limiting its application to fixed-guideway transportation systems located within “an independent special district created by local act which have boundaries within two contiguous counties,” otherwise known as Walt Disney World.
The legislation also adds a provision stating that any “raised” transportation systems subject to the above standards—which includes both Disney’s monorails and gondolas—are also subject to state-conducted structural safety inspections that previously applied only to bridges throughout the state.
The inclusion of the ambiguous phrase “as appropriate” could mean “as needed for the specific type of structure,” but it could also mean that the state may selectively administer these inspections (ahem, cough, Disney). Either way, Disney is the only non-governmentally owned or funded entity that will face routine, perhaps frequent, suspension of system service to accommodate state inspectors, and Disney’s primary business in Florida happens to be running the world’s busiest theme parks, which depend on fully operational fixed-guideway transportation systems.
Every further action from Governor DeSantis and Florida Republicans seems to prove Disney’s case—that this whole saga is about political retribution for constitutionally protected speech. I’ll be back soon with a lot more.
See you real soon, in the US Senate...? Very unsubtle hint.