They will be the ones putting out the message. “We have been told the leadership of the district will tell the story. “We have been told to stay quiet, don’t talk to the media, don’t engage with current events,” Shirey told supervisors. The firefighters, particularly retirees, are worried about losing their guaranteed lifetime health insurance, he said. Jon Shirey, the head of the union for Reedy Creek’s firefighters, who make up around half of the private government’s 400 employees, asked supervisors to give his members reassurances that their jobs and benefits would be preserved since they have been kept in the dark about what the effect is going to be. 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. The move came in a GOP push to punish Disney over its opposition to another new law barring instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in early grade school, which critics call "Don't Say Gay."įor the governor, the feud was the latest front in a culture war he has waged over policies involving race, gender and the coronavirus, battles DeSantis has harnessed to make himself one of the most popular Republicans in the country and a likely 2024 presidential candidate.Ī 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.
The dissolution measure was passed quickly in the Republican-controlled statehouse without public study of its impact and was hastily signed into law by DeSantis. I don’t think anyone has deciphered it,” Greer said. “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.