What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis?

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This new law will not affect WDW operations

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But what did Disney actually lose from its battle with DeSantis?

While the new law delivers some significant changes, the most crucial one is the canceling of a previous mandate that would have resulted in the total dissolution of the district. That earlier law, which DeSantis and state legislators rushed across the finish line in a sprint last spring, would have left taxpayers in Orange and Osceola counties, the two districts Disney straddles, saddled with debt owed by the district.

“That was something that a lot of people were worried about,” said Jacob Schumer, an attorney specializing in Florida local government and tax laws who has written about the bond-debt issue. “Nothing is going to change. The disaster that was gonna hit the county and the taxpayers around here other than Disney — it’s not going to affect them.”.....

But in other ways, it’s mostly business as usual, at least for now, experts say. Many essential privileges that made Reedy Creek unique remain intact, including the ability to issue bonds. “Those are the special things about what Reedy Creek did,” Schumer said.

Reedy Creek was born in part from the lessons that brothers Walt and Roy Disney learned from operating Disneyland in Anaheim, which opened in 1955. Their ambitions were curtailed by government red tape, having to work with the city for public services and on zoning issues. As the brothers looked to expand Disney’s footprint — only 10% of the people who came to Disneyland in California came from east of the Mississippi River — they wanted to have their own self-regulating system. The company eventually settled on Florida and worked with lawmakers to establish the Reedy Creek Improvement District in 1967. The theme park opened a few years later in 1971.

The district, spanning about 40 square miles in Orange and Osceola counties, provides everything from fire protection and emergency medical services to water systems, flood control and electric power generation. Its boundaries include four theme parks, two water parks, a sports complex, 175 miles of roadway, the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, utility centers, more than 40,000 hotel rooms and hundreds of restaurants and retail stores, according to its website.