DeSantis has dismissed those concerns and said additional legislation would be drafted to clarify the future of such special districts in the state.Īt the Reedy Creek meeting Wednesday, district administrator John Classe said a developer has experienced challenges financing a planned expansion of a solar power program, meaning it could be delayed. The district wrote that its agreement with the state forbids Florida from limiting or altering the district’s ability to collect taxes or fulfill its bond obligations.Ĭritics of the dissolution bill have warned that taxpayers in neighboring counties could end up shouldering about $1 billion in debts from the district. Last week, a day before DeSantis signed the bill into law, the Reedy Creek Improvement District sent a statement to investors that said it would continue its financial operations as usual. I don’t think anyone has deciphered it,” Greer said.ĭeSantis signed the measure into law last week in a move many saw as punishment for Disney’s opposition to another new law barring gender identity and sexual orientation instruction in early grade school, which critics call “Don’t Say Gay.” It was the latest front in a culture war DeSantis has waged over policies involving race, gender and the coronavirus, battles he has harnessed to make himself one of the most popular Republicans in the country and a likely 2024 presidential candidate. “The district may have a response as soon as we know what it means, but I don’t know if anybody knows what it means. The administrator of the government, called the Reedy Creek Improvement District, said the expansion of a solar power project could be delayed because of financing challenges linked to the legislation, and the union for the district’s firefighters expressed concerns about what the dissolution might mean for members’ lifetime benefits.Īfter the meeting, Donald Greer, who has been a member of Reedy Creek’s board of supervisors since 1975, said the board could not provide clear answers on those issues because “we don’t know where we are going.” Ron DeSantis signed into law a measure to dissolve it next year, officials said Wednesday they were still confused about what the new legislation meant, even as some ripple effects were starting to be felt. At the first meeting of Walt Disney World’s private government since Florida Gov.