Disney accounted for 263,000 jobs in Florida, more than three times the actual workforce Disney World, according to the study conducted by Oxford Economics and commissioned by Disney. Besides direct employment and spending, the study covering fiscal year 2022 attributed the company’s multibillion-dollar impact to indirect influences such as supply chain and employee spending.

The jobs include Disney employees as well as jobs supported by visitor spending off Disney World property. In Central Florida, Disney directly accounts for 1 in 8 jobs, and for every direct job at Disney World, another 1.7 jobs are supported across Florida, Oxford Economics said.

The time period in the study is before the takeover of Disney World’s governing district by DeSantis and his appointees after Disney publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. The law was championed by DeSantis, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

Disney officials in the past year have said the company plans to invest an additional $17 billion over the next decade in Central Florida, including potentially adding another 13,000 jobs.

However, the company has shown a willingness to pull back on investing in Florida.

Earlier this year, Disney scrapped plans to relocate 2,000 employees from Southern California to the Lake Nona neighborhood of Orlando to work in digital technology, finance and product development, an investment estimated at $1 billion.

Disney is battling DeSantis and his appointees in federal and state courts over the takeover of what was formally called the Reedy Creek Improvement District but was renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District after DeSantis appointees gained control.

The district was created by the Florida Legislature in 1967 to handle municipal services like firefighting, road repairs and waste hauling, and it was controlled by Disney supporters until earlier this year.

Before control of the district changed hands from Disney allies to DeSantis appointees, the Disney supporters on its board signed agreements with Disney shifting control over design and construction at Disney World to the company. The new DeSantis appointees said the “eleventh-hour deals” neutered their powers, and the district sued the company in state court in Orlando to have the contracts voided.

Disney has filed counterclaims, which include asking the state court to declare the agreements valid and enforceable.

Disney also has sued DeSantis, a state agency and DeSantis appointees on the district’s board in federal court in Tallahassee, saying the company’s free speech rights were violated when the governor and Republican lawmakers targeted it for expressing opposition to the law dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by its critics.

The First Amendment protects the right of free speech even if it goes against government powers, Disney said in court documents asking a judge to reject DeSantis’ motion to dismiss the entertainment giant’s First Amendment lawsuit in Tallahassee.

The Disney lawsuit says DeSantis unconstitutionally revamped and took over Walt Disney World’s governing district in retaliation after Disney publicly opposed a state law banning classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades.

“If the line is not drawn here, there is no line at all,” Disney’s filing said. “The retaliation against Disney for crossing the Governor’s ‘line’ was swift and severe: for the explicitly stated purpose of punishing Disney for its comments, the State immediately stripped Disney of its voting rights in the governing body that oversees Disney’s use of its own private property.”

DeSantis and other defendants, including a state agency and the DeSantis appointees on the board of the revamped district — now called the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District — say the First Amendment lawsuit is meritless and that they are immune from liability.

Disney also is battling the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District in state court in Orlando over control of the district.

Disney last week accused the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District of “dodging its obligations” and asked a Florida judge to delay any decision on whether the case should proceed until the company gets documents and conducts depositions needed to argue against a summary judgment requested by the district.

A hearing is scheduled for mid-December. Disney is seeking a delay of two and a half months.

The district has “failed to produce a single document for nearly two months following Disney’s requests, broke commitments to agreed-upon deadlines, and remains in possession of discovery that Disney needs to develop its summary judgment opposition,” Disney said in court papers.

A spokesman for the district did not respond to a response for comment.

The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, formerly called the Reedy Creek Improvement District, was controlled by Disney allies for more than five decades until it was taken over by DeSantis appointees earlier this year. The takeover of the district came after Disney publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades.

The law was championed by DeSantis, who currently is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

Before control of the district changed hands from Disney allies to DeSantis appointees, the Disney supporters on its board signed agreements with Disney shifting control over design and construction at Disney World to the company and prohibiting the district from using the likeness of Disney characters or other intellectual property without Disney’s permission.

The new DeSantis appointees claimed the “eleventh-hour deals” neutered their powers, and the district sued the company in state court to have the contracts voided.

Disney has filed counterclaims which include asking the state court to declare the agreements valid and enforceable. Disney also is seeking from DeSantis’ office and several state agencies internal communications, including text messages and emails, and documents.

“Productions to date have been nonexistent or woefully deficient,” Disney said in its court filing.

Disney and DeSantis and his allies also are battling in federal court, where the company has sued DeSantis, claiming the governor violated its free speech rights by punishing it for expressing opposition to the law.

DeSantis and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District have asked a federal judge to throw out Disney’s First Amendment lawsuit, calling it meritless.

The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, now controlled by supporters of the Republican governor, argued in a filing Wednesday that a state court judge should dismiss Disney’s counterclaims.

The counterclaims seek a court declaration that the agreements are valid and that the district’s board of DeSantis allies violated the company’s contracts, free speech and due process rights.

The pact shifted control over design and construction at Disney World from the district to the company and prohibited the district from using the likeness of Disney characters or other intellectual property without Disney’s permission.

They were signed in February before the district takeover by the DeSantis appointees, who said the contracts neutered their powers for the district that provides municipal services for Disney World.

The takeover of what had been called the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which was previously controlled by Disney, came after the company publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades.

The contracts weren’t properly publicized and the Disney supporters on the district’s board at the time didn’t have the legal authority to sign the agreements, the new district argued.

“Disney has failed to allege any facts that demonstrate the existence of damages,” said the district.

Disney and DeSantis and his allies also are battling in federal court, where the company has sued DeSantis, claiming the governor violated its free speech rights by punishing it for expressing opposition to the law.

DeSantis and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District have asked a federal judge to throw out Disney’s First Amendment lawsuit, calling it meritless.

The flow of Californians to Texas has marked the largest state-to-state movement in the U.S. for the past two years, but it decreased from more than 107,000 people in 2021 to more than 102,000 residents in 2022, as real estate in Texas’ largest cities has grown more expensive.

In Florida, meanwhile, the number of former Californians went from more than 37,000 people in 2021 to more than 50,000 people in 2022, and in Arizona, it went from more than 69,000 people to 74,000 people during that same time period.

California had a net loss of more than 113,000 residents last year, a number that would have been much higher if not for people moving to the state from other countries and a natural increase from more births than deaths. More than 343,000 people left California for another state last year, the highest number of any U.S. state.

School health screenings plunge in Central Florida under parents’ rights law

Housing costs are driving decisions to move out of California, according to Manuel Pastor, a professor of sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California.

“We are losing younger folks, and I think we will see people continuing to migrate where housing costs are lower,” Pastor said. “There are good jobs in California, but housing is incredibly expensive. It hurts young families, and it hurts immigrant families.”

Nevada also was a top destination for former Californians, but its gains dropped from more than 62,000 people in 2021 to more than 48,000 people in 2022.

The second-largest state-to-state movement in the U.S., from New York to Florida, remained almost unchanged from 2021 to 2022, at around 92,000 movers, according to the migration figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, which are based on American Community Survey one-year estimates.

Overall, more people living in one U.S. state moved to a different state last year in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic than they did in the previous year, though international migration was the primary driver of growth last year. In 2022, more than 8.2 million U.S. residents lived in a different state than they had in the previous year, compared to 7.8 million U.S. residents in 2021.

Among them were Evan Wu and Todd Brown, who moved from Corvallis, Oregon, to Honolulu in January 2022 for Wu’s job as an oncologist and cancer researcher, then at the start of this year to Southern California. Moving has been a constant for them in the past three years. In addition to Oregon, Hawaii and Southern California, they have lived in Baltimore, Maryland, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Along the way, they added three daughters under the ages of 2 to their family.

They are now in the process of moving from Southern California back to Hawaii, and once that is done, they will have storage units in five cities with possessions they had to leave behind.

“I love moving, but Todd hates it,” Wu said. “I love the change of scenery. It keeps you on your toes and keeps you sharp.”

Disney attorneys said in court papers Monday that they have subpoenaed John Classe, the former administrator of what was previously called the Reedy Creek Improvement District for 55 years. It was renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District earlier this year during a takeover by DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature.

The takeover of the district, which was previously controlled by Disney allies, came after the company publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades.

Following the takeover, Classe was replaced by DeSantis ally, Glen Gilzean.

Classe was in charge of the district when the governing body signed agreements with Disney that shifted control over design and construction at Disney World to the company and prohibited the district from using the likeness of Disney characters or other intellectual property without Disney’s permission.

The agreements were signed in February before the district takeover by the DeSantis appointees, who said the contracts neutered their powers. The appointees are now suing Disney in state court in an attempt to void the deals.

Among the records the Disney attorneys are seeking from Classe are documents used to adopt the contracts, documents that support the district’s authority to enter the contracts and information about how the agreements were publicized, according to the court documents filed Monday.

One of the arguments the DeSantis appointees make about why the agreements should be voided is that they weren’t properly publicized.

Disney has filed counterclaims in the state lawsuit which include asking the state court to declare the agreements valid and enforceable. Disney has sent a notice to DeSantis’ office demanding internal communications, including text messages and emails, and documents.

Disney and DeSantis and his allies also are battling in federal court, where the company has sued DeSantis, claiming the governor violated its free speech rights by punishing it for expressing opposition to the law.

DeSantis and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District have asked a federal judge to throw out Disney’s First Amendment lawsuit, calling it meritless.

The group of former governors, U.S. House members and presidential administration officials filed a “friend of the court” brief on Wednesday in Disney’s federal lawsuit against DeSantis and his appointees to the board of Disney World’s governing district. Disney’s lawsuit says the Republican governor violated the company’s free speech rights by taking over the district after Disney publicly opposed Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which banned classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades.

The group’s goal in filing the brief last week is to demonstrate “how the path the Governor has chosen is corrosive to the form of democracy envisioned by the Constitution, and to re-emphasize this Court’s critical constitutional role in curbing the excesses of governance by retaliation,” they said in a court filing.

Specifically, the group says that DeSantis’ actions harm Florida economically because firms are being dissuaded from doing business in Florida since they could be subject to the governor’s retaliatory whims if they ever voice disapproval over his policies. The group noted that Disney scrapped plans for a $1 billion campus in Orlando that would have relocated 2,000 employees from Southern California, following a year of attacks by DeSantis.

The group is made up of two former GOP governors, Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey and Arne Carlson of Minnesota; three former Republican U.S. House members, Tom Coleman of Missouri, Claudine Schneider of Rhode Island and Christopher Shays of Connecticut; and a host of attorneys, commissioners, chiefs of staff and other officials from previous Democratic and Republican presidential administrations.

DeSantis’ actions were retribution with a goal of discouraging Disney and others from opposing his policies in the future, said the officials who compared the takeover to autocratic actions taken in Russian and China.

“The fact that Governor DeSantis has taken these anti-democratic actions so blatantly and brazenly — that he is proud of them — only makes them all the more damaging to the political and social fabric of Florida and the country as a whole,” they said.

An email seeking comment was sent Sunday morning to a spokesperson for the governor’s office in Tallahassee. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press also has filed a brief in support of Disney, arguing that a win by the Florida governor would embolden other governments across the U.S. to take actions against journalists and other media when they exercise their First Amendment rights.

DeSantis, a candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, is seeking a dismissal of Disney’s lawsuit in Tallahassee federal court. The governor argues Disney is barred from filing a lawsuit because of legislative immunity protecting officials involved in the process of making laws and that the company lacks standing since it can’t show that it has been injured.

DeSantis appointees took control of the Disney World district earlier this year following a yearlong feud between the company and DeSantis. The fight began last year after Disney, beset by significant pressure internally and externally, publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades, a policy critics call “Don’t Say Gay.”

As punishment, Republican lawmakers passed legislation reconstituting the district and DeSantis appointed a new board of supervisors to oversee municipal services for the sprawling theme parks and hotels. Disney sued DeSantis and his five board appointees in federal court, saying the governor violated the company’s free speech rights by taking the retaliatory action.

Before the new board came in, Disney made agreements with previous oversight board members who were Disney supporters that stripped the new supervisors of their authority over design and development. The DeSantis-appointed members of the governing district have sued Disney in state court in a second lawsuit stemming from the district’s takeover, seeking to invalidate those agreements.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — AAA won’t renew “a very small percentage” of homeowners and auto insurance policies in hurricane-wracked Florida, joining other insurers in limiting their exposure in the Sunshine State despite efforts by lawmakers to calm the volatile insurance market, the company said Tuesday.

AAA said in a statement that it wasn’t leaving Florida, but that last year’s devastating hurricane season had led to an “unprecedented” rise in reinsurance rates, making it more costly to operate.

Officials with the company refused to say how many policies in Florida wouldn’t be renewed but said that they were “higher exposure” package policies which bundle homeowners and auto policies and were underwritten by Auto Club Insurance Company of Florida. An AAA spokesman wouldn’t explain how the company defined “higher exposure,” when asked.

“This is a decision we do not take lightly,” the AAA statement said. “We acknowledge that this is a difficult time for those affected.”

The affected policyholders already have been notified, and they can apply for auto coverage from sister carrier, Auto Club South Insurance. AAA also said it would continue to write other, new home and auto policies, despite the decision not to renew some policies.

Florida’s insurance woes are leaving some homeowners like Lawrence Kolin in the lurch. His insurer wouldn’t renew a policy for his stucco and brick, Spanish-tile-roofed home near downtown Orlando. With 30 days left until his coverage lapses, he can’t get another insurance company to give him a quote.

“My house has survived 84 years of hurricane seasons,” Kolin, a mediator and trial attorney in Orlando, said Tuesday. “It’s just an untenable situation.”

Florida has struggled to maintain stability in the state insurance market since 1992 when Hurricane Andrew flattened Homestead, wiped out some insurance carriers and left many remaining companies fearful to write or renew policies in Florida. Risks for carriers have also been growing as climate change increases the strength of hurricanes and the intensity of rainstorms.

The decision by AAA comes a week after Farmers Insurance said it was discontinuing new coverage of auto, home and umbrella policies in Florida, joining a long list of insurance woes to hit the Sunshine State recently.

Seven insurers have been declared insolvent in Florida since early 2022. Average annual property insurance premiums jumped 42% this year to $6,000 in Florida, compared to a national average of $1,700. About 15% of homeowners in the state didn’t have property insurance, compared with the national average of 7%, according to the Insurance Information Institute, a research organization funded by the insurance industry.

The Legislature and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have grappled with the issue each of the last two years, including a special session in December. Most of the focus has been on shielding insurance companies from lawsuits and setting aside money for re-insurance to help protect insurers. Critics of DeSantis, who is seeking the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, say he has focused too much effort on divisive cultural issues and not enough on making housing and insurance more affordable.

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Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP

The NAACP, long an advocate for Black Americans, joined the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), a Latino civil rights organization, and Equality Florida, a gay rights advocacy group, in issuing travel advisories for the Sunshine State, where tourism is one of the state’s largest job sectors.

The warning approved Saturday by the NAACP’s board of directors tells tourists that, before traveling to Florida, they should understand the state of Florida “devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.”

An email was sent Sunday morning to DeSantis’ office seeking comment. DeSantis is expected to announce a run for the GOP presidential nomination this week.

Florida is one of the most popular states in the U.S. for tourists, and tourism is one of its biggest industries. More than 137.5 million tourists visited Florida last year, marking a return to pre-pandemic levels, according to Visit Florida, the state’s tourism promotion agency. Tourism supports 1.6 million full-time and part-time jobs, and visitors spent $98.8 billion in Florida in 2019, the last year figures are available.

The NAACP’s decision comes after the DeSantis’ administration in January rejected the College Board’s Advanced Placement African American Studies course. DeSantis and Republican lawmakers also have pressed forward with measures that ban state colleges from having programs on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as critical race theory, and also passed the Stop WOKE Act that restricts certain race-based conversations and analysis in schools and businesses.

DeSantis signs bills aimed at transgender care, pronouns, drag shows

In its warning for Hispanic travelers considering a visit to Florida, LULAC cited a new law that prohibits local governments from providing money to organizations that issue identification cards to people illegally in the country and invalidates out-of-state driver’s licenses held by undocumented immigrants, among other things. The law also requires hospitals that accept Medicaid to include a citizenship question on intake forms, which critics have said is intended to dissuade immigrants living in the U.S. illegally from seeking medical care.

Florida OKs expansion of so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law

“The actions taken by Governor DeSantis have created a shadow of fear within communities across the state,” said Lydia Medrano, a LULAC vice president for the Southeast region.
Recent efforts to limit discussion on LGBTQ topics in schools, the removal of books with gay characters from school libraries, a recent ban on gender-affirming care for minors, new restrictions on abortion access and a law allowing Floridians to carry concealed guns without a permit contributed to Equality Florida’s warning.

“Taken in their totality, Florida’s slate of laws and policies targeting basic freedoms and rights pose a serious risk to the health and safety of those traveling to the state,” Equality Florida’s advisory said.

During the first full year of the pandemic in 2021, more than half of the 20 largest U.S. metro areas lost residents, and all U.S. metro areas grew by just 0.1%, as fear of the virus sent residents fleeing the most densely-populated urban areas and the popularity of remote work allowed people to live far from their workplaces.

By comparison, only eight of the 20 largest metro areas decreased in 2022, and the growth rate for all U.S. metros was 0.4%. Among the largest U.S. metros that had gains in 2022 after experiencing losses in 2021 were Washington, Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Seattle, Minneapolis and San Diego, according to 2022 population estimates released Thursday by the Census Bureau.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area grew the most among U.S. metros, jumping by six-digit figures for a second consecutive year, as it gained another 170,000 residents last year. Metro Dallas-Fort Worth’s 7.9 million residents made it the nation’s fourth-largest metropolitan area, behind only New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, all of which lost population last year but with much smaller losses compared to the first year of the pandemic.

Other metropolitan areas which saw the largest growth in number were Houston, adding more than 124,000 residents; Atlanta, with almost 79,000 new residents; Phoenix, with an additional nearly 73,000 people; and Orlando, adding almost 65,000 new residents.

Metro Phoenix also surpassed the 5 million-person threshold for the first time last year.

There were other signs that 2021’s pandemic-related migration changed a year later.

Boise Idaho and Provo, Utah — two metros that were popular destinations in 2021 for residents fleeing the West Coast’s most populous cities — dropped out of the top 20 in population growth in 2022.

By that same token, smaller communities known as micropolitan statistical areas grew by 0.1% last year compared to 0.2% in 2021.

Metropolitan statistical areas consist of one or more counties containing a central city with a population of at least 50,000 residents that together have a high degree of economic and social connections. The central city in a micropolitan statistical area must have at least 10,000 residents but no more than 50,000 residents.

Population change is driven by migration, including within U.S. borders as people move around and internationally as people arrive from abroad. It is also dependent on a community’s number of births and deaths. Thursday’s data release doesn’t show the reasons behind population changes, but similar data at the county level released in March showed it was mostly driven by international migration.

Individually, cities that make up the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area were among those that grew the most in the U.S. last year. With 19,100 new residents, the city of Forth Worth led the nation, followed by the city Phoenix with more than 19,000 additional residents and the city of San Antonio, Texas, with more than 18,800 residents gained.

Two other cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area — Dallas and Frisco — also were among those whose numbers most dramatically spiked, jumping respectively by 8,800 residents and 8,500 residents. These new residents were lured by a strong economy, mild winters and good schools.

The Villages, a relatively new retirement community northwest of Orlando, was the fastest-growing U.S. metro area between 2021 and 2022, increasing by 7.5%.