The drama continues between Disney World and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Here’s a quick recap in case you missed this story: When Gov. DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education Bill — commonly called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — into law, The Walt Disney Company denounced the legislation. Seemingly in retaliation to Disney’s comments, Gov. DeSantis introduced new legislation to repeal the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which is a governing body that essentially allows Disney World to function as its own government.

This bill was signed into law, and it states that the district will be dissolved in June 2023. Since the bill passed, some Florida residents have filed lawsuits against Gov. DeSantis in protest. Now, we have an update about the current status of those lawsuits.

This story has a lot of developments to follow, so we don’t blame you if you think it sounds a little bit confusing. If you want a full background of the situation, you can find that here.

Click here to see everything we know about the Reedy Creek dissolution.

But the basics that you need to know are that Gov. DeSantis is going to dissolve Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District in June 2023, and some Florida residents are concerned about the impact and implications that the dissolution could have.

Taxpayers from counties that surround Disney World filed a complaint in federal court against Gov. DeSantis about the issue, stating that the law to dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District was made in haste. Their main concerns were that the change could leave counties with a massive amount of debt (up to $1 billion) and that it violated Disney’s First Amendment rights as it seemed to be retaliatory against Disney’s statement against the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

At the time, the federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, stating that the federal court doesn’t have jurisdiction over issues affecting the state. The judge also claimed that the plaintiffs “do not plausibly allege they have suffered any concrete injury as a result of the alleged violation of Disney’s First Amendment rights.”

This lawsuit was refiled in May, however, and now Gov. DeSantis and other politicians have responded. The Orlando Business Journal reported that Gov. DeSantis and 2 other state departments who were named in the lawsuit have filed for the lawsuit to be dismissed.

On August 19th, 2022, they filed for the dismissal, stating that “plaintiffs have no legal right to prohibit the State of Florida from dissolving governmental entities created by state law.” The appeal to dismiss the case also states that the “plaintiffs’ premature, scattershot complaint attempts to do just that; it challenges the legality of SB 4-C, a facially neutral general law that uniformly dissolves certain pre-1968 independent special districts effective June 1, 2023, based solely on speculative injuries that are completely disconnected from any cause of action.”

In this request, Gov. DeSantis and the others claim the complaint is “replete with defects” and should either be dismissed completely or “transferred to Tallahassee’s Leon County.” They claim that “no tax increase related to SB 4-C has been proposed or imposed on plaintiffs.” Thus far, Gov. DeSantis has not revealed the government’s plan to replace the Reedy Creek Improvement District or take care of the $1 billion in debt that comes with that district.

It seems that a successor district could follow the dissolution of Reedy Creek, but no official plan has been revealed.

We’ll continue to watch the status of this lawsuit, and we’ll be sure to update you when there’s any news about whether it has been dismissed or will continue. Keep following DFB for all the latest news.

Click here to learn more about the dissolution of the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

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The post UPDATE on the Dissolution of Disney World’s Reedy Creek District first appeared on the disney food blog.