ORLANDO, Fla. – Despite tensions between the Walt Disney Company and Florida’s governor, Disney’s CEO says he would be glad to meet with Gov. Ron DeSantis and hash out their differences.
Robert Iger was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world Thursday, and in an interview with the magazine, Iger answered questions about “the situation in Florida,” as reporter Belinda Luscombe put it.
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“If the governor of Florida wants to meet with me to discuss all of this, of course, I would be glad to do that. You know, I’m one that typically has respected our elected officials and the responsibility that they have, and there would be no reason why I wouldn’t do that,” Iger told Time Magazine.
That situation involves Disney’s criticism last year of the Parental Rights in Education law, also known to critics as the Don’t Say Gay law. In retaliation, DeSantis and Republicans in the state Legislature held two special sessions to remake the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the special governing body that handles Walt Disney World property, and put its board under the governor’s control. The district was renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, and the governor appointed its five-member board.
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In the weeks before the Reedy Creek Improvement District was dissolved, however, the board made one of its last acts an agreement with the Walt Disney Company that stripped the board of much of its control for a period lasting decades.
DeSantis ordered an investigation into the agreement, and promised “very, very strong action,” against Disney in a discussion last week, throwing out possible options that included taxing hotels, putting tolls on roads and developing property within the district.
Iger, for his part, told Disney shareholders earlier this month that any actions taken “simply” in retaliation for Disney’s position on the Parental Rights in Education law sounded not just “anti-business, but it sounds anti-Florida, and I’ll just leave it at that.”
In his interview with Time, Iger called Walt Disney World one of the most ambitious things Walt Disney ever did, and one that has created huge value not just for the company, but for Florida itself — a reminder of how much Disney’s presence in Florida has impacted the state economically, from employing thousands of Floridians to bringing millions of tourists, not to mention their money, to the state.
“Our sole goal in Florida is to continue creating that value for all those constituencies,” Iger said. “All we want is a relationship with the state that enables us to continue to do that.”
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