Disney's (and 1844 other entities) special district status is enshrined in Florida state and/or county law. At that point, those "privileges" become legal rights:
> RCID operates in accordance with its Charter and Chapter 189, Florida Statutes, The Uniform Special Districts Accountability Act. Additional information contained in legislation. Click here to view the District Charter: https://www.rcid.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/RCID-Charter...
Further, the first amendment to the US Constitution grants people (and corporations due to rulings like Citizens United, et al.) the right to publicly voice their opinions (good or bad) about the government's actions without fear of government retaliation, except in very narrow cases where that speech is deemed illegal. This is the real crux of the issue: if this legislation was retaliatory--and there are ample indications that it was in the public record--then the legislation violates Disney's first amendment rights.
Whether the corporate rights exist in law for Disney (and other theme parks) is a matter of public record. Whether those rights should be granted at all is a topic worthy of debate, but it actually orthogonal to this particular issue, though they are clearly related.
And the harm to Disney and Orange and Osceola counties is that they must transition all of the infrastructure and services that are operated by the RCID to the counties before the dissolution of the RCID on July 1, 2023. On or after July 1, 2023, Disney can petition the government to re-establish the special district. If approved, then Disney and the counties will have to transition the infrastructure and services back to the newly re-established RCID. The time, effort and cost of those two transitions will be born by Disney and the Orange and Osceola county taxpayers and will like run in the 10s to 100s of millions of dollars, with no business, legislative, or regulatory benefit for the expenditure.
> RCID operates in accordance with its Charter and Chapter 189, Florida Statutes, The Uniform Special Districts Accountability Act. Additional information contained in legislation. Click here to view the District Charter: https://www.rcid.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/RCID-Charter...
Further, the first amendment to the US Constitution grants people (and corporations due to rulings like Citizens United, et al.) the right to publicly voice their opinions (good or bad) about the government's actions without fear of government retaliation, except in very narrow cases where that speech is deemed illegal. This is the real crux of the issue: if this legislation was retaliatory--and there are ample indications that it was in the public record--then the legislation violates Disney's first amendment rights.
Whether the corporate rights exist in law for Disney (and other theme parks) is a matter of public record. Whether those rights should be granted at all is a topic worthy of debate, but it actually orthogonal to this particular issue, though they are clearly related.
And the harm to Disney and Orange and Osceola counties is that they must transition all of the infrastructure and services that are operated by the RCID to the counties before the dissolution of the RCID on July 1, 2023. On or after July 1, 2023, Disney can petition the government to re-establish the special district. If approved, then Disney and the counties will have to transition the infrastructure and services back to the newly re-established RCID. The time, effort and cost of those two transitions will be born by Disney and the Orange and Osceola county taxpayers and will like run in the 10s to 100s of millions of dollars, with no business, legislative, or regulatory benefit for the expenditure.