Corporate welfare and Disney in Florida represent the worst of corporate welfare and the use of tax breaks and incentives to attract big business and corporations to states and cities. While businesses, like Disney, bring employment and tax revenue to an area, big business does not control the people, government, or public education of the area they move into We the People, through our legislative representatives and state executive branches, control our government and education. Business can lobby government, but businesses do not have a vote in government by and for the people. In Florida, the relationship between corporate welfare and Disney became toxic when the woke Disney openly opposed and criticized the cultural norms, traditional values, and parental rights supported by the majority of Floridians.
House Bill (HB) 1557 signed by is Governor Ron DeSantis on March 28,2022 is central to this controversy. The bill, Parental Rights in Education,
œreinforces parents fundamental rights to make decisions regarding the upbringing of their children. The bill prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through 3rd grade and prohibits instruction that is not age appropriate for students and requires school districts to adopt procedures for notifying parents if there is a change in services from the school regarding a child’s mental, emotional or physical health or well-being.
Parents have every right to be informed about services offered to their child at school, and should be protected from schools using classroom instruction to sexualize their kids as young as 5 years old.
Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nu±ez said, ‘This bill refuses to allow school boards and teachers unions the ability to hide information about students from their parents Throughout this legislative session, this bill has been maliciously maligned by those who prefer slogans and sound bites over substance and common sense. Fortunately, Governor DeSantis and I believe that parents should have a say. We will not back down to woke corporations and their same tired tactics that are steeped in hypocrisy. As a mother of three, I am committed to protecting the rights of parents.
The phrase don’t say gay does not appear anywhere in the legislation. The legislation is exactly as its title portrays. It is parental rights legislation, not anti-LGBTQ legislation. In my opinion, it is a misrepresentation of the text and intent of the legislation to claim otherwise.
Disney, the corporate bully and ungrateful corporate welfare recipient that they are, stated very openly and publicly that they would work to have the legislation reversed or rescinded. Disney does not care that most Floridians favor the œParental Rights in Education Act, and it passed both houses of the Florida legislature by strong margins. For Floridians, corporate welfare and Disney is proving to be a source of great consternation. When it comes to the bully Disney, Governor Ron DeSantis is proving to be a tuff Ralphy.
Consequently, Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation today, April 22,2022, that stripped Disney of its corporate welfare benefits dating back to the mid-1960’s when Florida was wooing Disney for its Disney World complex. Of course, progressives and officials in the two counties containing Disney World are complaining that they will be forced to spend around $2,000 per household to pay for the lost infrastructure and public service funds and debt that the corporate welfare and Disney arrangement previously provided. Unfortunately for Disney, Floridians would only pay for the lost corporate welfare if Floridians vote to accept those obligations or fail to vote to reject the obligations.
Park Meadows Mall in Douglas County, Colorado, is an example of a mechanism that Floridians should use to avoid paying for the corporate welfare that Disney will lose. In the early 1990’s a mall development group started exploring their development options. Of course, they proposed tax levies and bond issues to cover required infrastructure on the county and communities surrounding the proposed mall site which was located on unincorporated county land. The people in the area revolted and quickly and successfully petitioned the state to form the city of Lonetree, Colorado, in the area surrounding the proposed mall site. Despite threats by the mall developers to move the mall to a different location, the people of Lonetree rejected all local tax levies and bond issues which they would have to pay. As a result, the mall developers financed the infrastructure costs by adding a required percentage Infrastructure Surcharge to every mall store purchase. Consequently, the people of Lonetree did not incur additional taxes; and the infrastructure costs were spread among all the mall customers from all the state and out of state tourists. Florida and the affected counties should require Disney to add a similar surcharge to all Disney attractions and purchases. Then, the world would pay for the lost corporate welfare and Disney obligations.
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