For fifty years the magical world of Disney, led by its iconic leader Walt Disney, contemplated building a new theme park that would lead to the success it achieved on the American West Coast.
The sights pointed to Florida, and one of the challenges represented lobbying with the authorities of the time the decision that it would mean for this tourist center to have an amusement center that would give it a large number of jobs and a considerable economic benefit. A current figure, before the COVID crisis Disney in Orlando, generated 77 thousand jobs.
In little more than 100 square kilometers, a place larger than Monaco, the Vatican, Nauru and San Marino, the company developed this great theme park that helps generate globally, 16,550 million dollars a year. Disney earns per hour, 6 million 294 thousand dollars.
A company of such magnitude is not indifferent to any government and for the state of Florida it was no exception, when contemplating in 1967 a special treatment through the creation of a legal figure, called The Ready Creek Improvement District, the famous RCID .
The RCID allowed Disney to build the park outside the regulatory framework of neighboring Orange and Osceola counties, but on the condition that the corporation take charge of the development and infrastructure without government support.
A governing board made up of five members, selected by the owners, supervises the works and executes the guidelines taken in it.
The association deals with issues as diverse as power generation and distribution, regulation, building codes, and public services such as security, fire, and medical services.
There are no cracks in this type of company-government agreement, and it should be a model to imitate for certain sectors, since it is an agreement based on the win-win concept and that only political leaders with the spirit of promoters of development economic, they understand in its real dimension because they know that they provide social welfare.
Up to this point in the story everything was going well.
What happened then?…
The Republican Government of Florida, chaired by Ron de Santis, proposed a law that directed its batteries to population segments that were excluded from their rights and that many of these are part of Disney, giving rise to a war of positions that endangers the RCID agreement and with it, the stability of the largest entertainment company in the world.
An interesting fact is that the company has been a regular contributor to Republican election campaigns and this fact did not seem to matter to De Santis, who reviews the conclusion of this crisis with his staff.
An additional problem is that, if the Floridian legislature reverses this agreement, the neighboring counties will have to assume the infrastructure expenses, which in the case of Disney are substantial.
A case of high negotiation that must review all its edges.
We’ll meet later.