this morning walt disney world is on the
brink of losing its special
self-governing status yesterday florida
lawmakers passed a bill that would
dissolve the theme park special tax
district which has been in place for
more than half a century now the bill
goes to governor ron desantis who is
expected to sign it it's the latest
salvo in the ongoing battle over the
state's so-called don't say gay law nbc
news now correspondent maura barrett
joins us again this morning from the
state capitol in tallahassee maura good
morning so bring us up to speed on where
things stand with the bill and what is
next
well all that's left to make this
official joe is governor ron de santa
signing it into law and that's expected
to happen very quickly and from there
once disney ultimately dissolves into
the surrounding counties that means that
they no longer have jurisdiction over
their own fire department emergency
services utilities sewage water
treatment that all then goes to the
surrounding counties and that means that
taxes and
debt potentially that disney has as well
also gets transferred but the thing is
is this isn't going to take effect until
next summer june of 2023 so about 13
months that disney has to either push
back against this new law or find
compromise with lawmakers and there's a
lot of lack of clarity because this came
into effect very quickly it was
introduced at the beginning of this week
and is being signed into law potentially
as early as today and so we have not
heard from disney on how they plan on
taking next steps uh but it is safe to
say that this might end up in the lapse
of a lot of lawyers joe yeah and this
might not be good for disney but it also
could have a serious impact on taxpayers
in florida especially in those two
counties there what's the reaction been
like
it's been not good obviously again like
i said because it came into play so
quickly they didn't have enough time to
survey members or residents or
representatives from those counties to
see how they might take something like
this because it has a direct effect one
tax official that nbc spoke to estimated
that taxes could rise up to 25 percent
because of the almost billion dollars in
taxes that disney would be transferring
to these counties and this is an area of
the country that already has very high
taxes and is struggling with affordable
housing i met with representative
tavares mccurdy he represents a district
in orange county and i want you to hear
about some of his concern that he told
me
well it's very alarming
it can negatively cause individuals in
orange county and osceola county
surrounding counties to absorb cost
burdens that we had nothing to do with
he has ambition to run for president and
he wants to craft the path that he
seized the very least amount of
turbulence to you know for for his
aspirations
now the he that he's referring to there
is governor ron desantis and obviously
the politician here making a lot of
waves in recent months with his some of
his political moves a lot of speculation
about whether he intends to run for
president but from what i heard from
people here that were in the state house
yesterday they are very not happy and
displeased with how quickly the governor
is trying to take action uh to get
political retribution as they call it
and maura quickly i know you spoke with
a lawmaker who introduced this bill what
did he have to say
well representative randy finer state
republican here basically said he
introduced the bill and sponsored the
bill because of as a direct correlation
to that parental education and rights
bill or so-called the don't say gay bill
they're trying to get a revenge against
disney i want to hear some of what he
told me
when you kick the hornet's nest other
issues often percolate that happens in
the florida legislature so when all this
ruckus happened with the parental rights
and education bill we actually started
taking a look at special districts and
we realized six of them had been
established before the florida
constitution was put in place and they
had all sorts of funky things going on
with them so we decided we would take a
look at it and solve the problem
now this is just the latest in a trend
we've seen of some companies in various
politically contentious states take
social political stances citigroup in
texas for example saying that it would
pay to send its employees out of state
to receive abortions if they needed one
after texas bans that and so what
remains to be seen as these companies
are taking this stance and states are
pushing back and punishing them how that
all will fall
down the road later in november come
midterms and if it does have any
political implications on the
politicians that put
this push back into place joe mora
thanks so much appreciate it
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