Swamp Thing

 It's a pretty solid rhetorical question, but would you rather have Ron DeSantis for a governor or Mickey Mouse? One of them, after all is a cartoon character. The other is a rodent. 

This quandary is posited primarily because of the bill the Florida legislature passed a bill seeking to dissolve a special district that allows the Walt Disney Company to act as its own government within its magical borders this past Thursday. This would mean that The House of Mouse would no longer supply its own security, emergency medical care, fire protection, roads, water, and pixie dust. Known as the Reedy Creek District, Disney has held sway in the Orlando swamp for fifty-five years. It is only now that push, in the form of Governor Ron, has come to shove, "bringing California values to Florida" in the words of one Sunshine State lawmaker. 

So after years of playing both sides of the fence politically, it became necessary for the Happiest Place On Earth to say "gay." In a statement, DisneyCo said, “Florida’s HB 1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law. Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that.” Which brought Governor Ron's weasels out of the dark and into the light. In a partisan legislative move faster than you can say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious brought a bill to Governor Ron's desk that would end the dominion of the sovereign Mouse. 

And as a result, Reedy Creek employees and infrastructure would be absorbed by the local counties, which would then become responsible for all municipal services. The counties would collect the tax revenue Disney currently pays the Reedy Creek district, but would also be saddled with the district’s liabilities. That would be debt. With a capital D. This would drop into the local tax base to the tune of one billion dollars. This in turn would leave to the thing that Republicans claim to hate even more than the idea of LBGTQ+: higher taxes. How much do Republicans hate gay? One billion dollars worth. 

Governor Ron is effectively running off Florida's biggest employer and asking his central Florida residents to foot the bill. Governor Ron is up for re-election this year. I am not allowed to vote in that election, but I'm guessing a bunch of ducks, mermaids and assorted talking animals that will. I wonder how that will turn out?