Yesterday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held a press conference regarding the situation with Disney and the nullification of the state’s previous agreement with the company. During the discussion, DeSantis mentioned the land that the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District owned. Multiple media outlets are reporting that DeSantis said to put a state prison near Walt Disney World.

But is it true?

Yes, he mentioned it, but not in the context being presented.

DeSantis started explaining how the district owns some land around the area, and Disney tried to restrict what the land can be used for.

“One of the things they [Disney] tried to do was put restrictive covenants on the land that the district owns. So if you look at this whole special district Walt Disney Corporation obviously owns a lot of it but the district owns other land. And, quite frankly, I wasn’t even thinking about that land; uhh, this was not something that was really important one way or another. We just wanted them to live under the same rules, pay the debt, pay the taxes, all that stuff.”

From there, he discussed what people suggested could be built on the land. He did not solely say to make it a prison. He also mentioned a state park or other attractions.

“Oh, but come to think of it now, people are like, there’s, what should we do with this land? And so you know, it’s like OK, can, I mean people have said, you know, maybe create another state park, maybe try to do more amusement parks, uh someone even said like maybe you need another state prison. I mean, who knows? I just think the possibilities are endless. So that is now going to be analyzed to see what would make the most sense, and that wasn’t necessarily on the radar.”

Yes, he did laughingly say that someone suggested it. But it was mentioned with other suggestions they had gotten.

It does seem that the state of Florida had no interest in using the land they now owned until Disney tried to grant themselves control over it. Now it’s an issue.

You can watch it for yourself:

Whether you like DeSantis or not, or whether you like Disney or not, we need to stick to the facts. While DeSantis technically did say someone suggested it, he did not say that Florida plans to put a state prison near Walt Disney World.

My concern was more about how DeSantis argues that Disney needs to be held to the same standards are taxpayers and competitors while trying to put state inspections on Disney as part of the district. Then not mandating them for Sea World or Universal Orlando. But that’s another topic for another day.