The Killing of the DeSantis Bill

From CNN, the reason why the DeSantis bill will lose its life: (CNN)Disney’s self-governing special district, the Reedy Creek Improvement District, says that Florida’s move to dissolve the district next year is not legal unless the state pays off Reedy Creek’s extensive debts.

Reedy Creek is a special purpose district created by state law in May 1967 that gives The Walt Disney Company extensive governmental control over the land in and around its central Florida theme parks. With that power, Reedy Creek currently has about $1 billion in outstanding bond debt, according to the credit rating agency Fitch Ratings.

In a statement issued to its bondholders last Thursday, Reedy Creek pointed out that the 1967 law also includes a pledge from Florida to its bondholders. The law states that Florida “will not in any way impair the rights or remedies of the holders … until all such bonds together with interest thereon, and all costs and expenses in connection with any act or proceeding by or on behalf of such holders, are fully met and discharged.”

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/27/us/reedy-creek-disney-florida…

Ronny, Ronny, Ronny you’ve been a bad boy and you’re about to get beaten up by a Mouse.

OTFoolish

Walt,

Ronny, Ronny, Ronny you’ve been a bad boy and you’re about to get beaten up by a Mouse.

Don’t be so sure.

A law abolishing a special district clearly must provide a mechanism for repayment of outstanding bonds, but it’s not clear that the law recently enacted in Florida fails in that regard. There are several mechanisms by which this could happen.

Norm.