{"id":3920,"date":"2022-04-03T21:21:55","date_gmt":"2022-04-03T21:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linksus.net\/desantis-slammed-a-special-disney-carveout-his-staff-helped-write-it-tampa-bay-times\/"},"modified":"2022-04-03T21:21:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-03T21:21:55","slug":"desantis-slammed-a-special-disney-carveout-his-staff-helped-write-it-tampa-bay-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/2022\/04\/03\/desantis-slammed-a-special-disney-carveout-his-staff-helped-write-it-tampa-bay-times\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis slammed a special Disney carveout. His staff helped write it. – Tampa Bay Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Ron DeSantis continued escalating his battle against The Walt Disney Co. this week, calling for a new era in Florida where the company no longer gets to wield its mighty influence and \u201cdictate policy\u201d to state leaders.
He singled out a special carveout that legislators approved <\/b>for Disney in a 2021 bill that aimed to crack down on what DeSantis said was too many conservatives having their accounts banned by \u201cBig Tech\u201d social media companies<\/a>.
The bill was a DeSantis priority, but has since been blocked in court. That\u2019s <\/b>in part <\/b>because the Republican bill sponsors added a last-minute amendment exempting companies that own theme parks, a move <\/b>the House sponsor acknowledged was especially so that reviews left on Disney+ wouldn\u2019t fall under the law.
\u201cAt the eleventh hour when the Legislature was doing this, Disney got them to put in a carveout for theme parks,\u201d DeSantis said Thursday during a news conference in West Palm Beach in which he called for ending the company\u2019s \u201cspecial privileges.\u201d
\u201cI\u2019m thinking to myself, \u2018This is ridiculous.\u2019 Honestly, it was embarrassing,\u201d he added, saying he considered vetoing the legislation because of the carveout.
But DeSantis\u2019 own staff helped write it.
Emails between staff working for the governor\u2019s office and the House Commerce Committee show that DeSantis\u2019 legislative affairs director, Stephanie Kopelousos, was in communication with Disney to propose bill language written by the company. The emails were first reported by the Seeking Rents<\/i> newsletter<\/a>, which shared them with the Tampa Bay Times.<\/i>
Kopelousos\u2019 messages have subject lines including, \u201cLatest from disney\u201d and \u201cNew Disney language,\u201d all with various clauses that could be added to the bill to exempt the company, often by tweaking the definition of what constitutes a social media company.
In one message sent one day before the end of the regular session, Kopelousos wrote: \u201cDisney responded with this,\u201d before a new line to potentially add to the bill. DeSantis\u2019 budget and policy chief, Chris Spencer, replied with suggestions and feedback, as did the governor\u2019s general counsel at the time, James Uthmeier, who has since become chief of staff.
At multiple points, the staff director for the House Commerce Committee, Kurt Hamon, pushed back on Disney\u2019s suggestions, including one that would have exempted the website or app of a \u201cjournalistic enterprise.\u201d
\u201cSo Disney is a journalistic enterprise now? I would say no to this one too,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI like our versions better.\u201d
The messages reflected a concerted push at the end of the session, with emails going back and forth one day <\/b>until nearly midnight. At one point, Hamon asked the governor\u2019s staff about the \u201ctimeline\u201d in coordination with the Senate.
\u201cYesterday?\u201d responded Kopelousos.
The amendment lawmakers finally adopted \u2014 despite pushback from some Democratic legislators \u2014 exempted online platforms \u201coperated by a company that owns and operates a theme park or entertainment complex.\u201d
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When asked for comment on the contrast between the emails and the governor\u2019s recent comments, DeSantis\u2019 spokesperson, Christina Pushaw, said what he said during the news conference \u201cspeaks for itself.\u201d
DeSantis has gotten at least <\/b>$100,000 <\/b>in campaign contributions in recent years from Disney. The company also has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars since the 2020 election to the Republican Party of Florida and committees tied to the Legislature\u2019s Republican leadership.
A spokesperson for House Speaker Chris Sprowls did not respond to two emails asking about the governor\u2019s jabs at the Legislature over the 2021 Disney carveout. Katherine Betta, spokesperson for Senate President Wilton Simpson, said there was no comment from the president \u201cat this time.\u201d
After DeSantis signed the bill, technology company groups sued. The bill was blocked last summer from taking effect by a federal judge in Tallahassee, who said, in addition to other objections, the Disney carveout means the law \u201cdiscriminates on its face\u201d by having different rules for companies that own theme parks.
DeSantis said Thursday he\u2019s confident that the state will win that case on appeal.
And he said that Disney\u2019s reign as a powerful special interest should end going forward.
\u201cThey\u2019ve lost a lot of the pull that they used to have, and honestly I think that\u2019s a good thing for our state,\u201d DeSantis said. He added that he\u2019s against \u201cany special privileges\u201d in law, but Disney, in particular, has been allowed to \u201calmost govern themselves.\u201d
The company didn\u2019t respond to an email Friday afternoon <\/b>requesting comment.
DeSantis isn\u2019t the only Republican in the state pushing back against Disney following the company\u2019s increasingly vocal opposition<\/a> to Florida\u2019s \u201cParental Rights in Education\u201d bill that critics have dubbed the \u201cdon\u2019t say gay\u201d bill. DeSantis has derided the company\u2019s response as caving to the \u201cwoke\u201d left, while Disney has called for a repeal or a court ruling against the bill and has frozen its political giving in Florida.
Rep. Joe Harding, the Republican sponsor of the bill, this week said he was returning $3,000 in Disney political contributions.
Another House member, Rep. Spencer Roach, R-North Fort Myers, tweeted recently that he\u2019s been talking with lawmakers about repealing Disney\u2019s Reedy Creek Improvement District, which grants the company massive powers of self-governance including their own zoning, utilities, fire department, bonding authority and more.
On Friday, DeSantis was asked at a different news conference if the district should be dissolved. He said lawmakers are \u201cright\u201d to consider the idea but stopped short of endorsing it.
\u201cThe Legislature is going to have to look to see,\u201d he said.
Times Political Editor<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Ron DeSantis continued escalating his battle against The Walt Disney Co. this week, calling for a new era in Florida where the company no longer gets to wield its mighty influence and \u201cdictate policy\u201d to state leaders.He singled out a special carveout that legislators approved for Disney in a 2021 bill that aimed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3920"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}