The Walt Disney Company announced they are moving around 2,000 jobs to Florida from California. The jobs will be located on a new campus in Lake Nona, which has yet to be built. The move will take approximately 18 months.
“Florida’s business-friendly climate” was one of the main reasons they decided to make the move while California’s lockdown measures have shuttered Disneyland’s doors for three months.
Florida’s open economy and open-for-business COVID-approach has attracted millions of new residents and many high-profile corporations.
“This new regional campus gives us the opportunity to consolidate our teams and be more collaborative and impactful both from a creative and operational standpoint,” said Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.
Disney’s move reflects the growing trend of residents and businesses flocking to Florida. Rumors started to swirl of the New York Stock Exchange moving to Florida after the NYSE’s head, Stacey Cunningham, flouted the idea in a Wall Street Journal opinion editorial.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis has been very vocal about recruiting businesses and residents to Florida by reminding them of Florida’s law taxes and calling New York and New Jersey “financial train wrecks.”
“Let’s just talk about the empty nesters from New York or the empty nesters from New Jersey,” Patronis said. “They then decide to leave the tax hell that those states are in and move to the state of Florida.”
Disney is not the only company planning to move entities or jobs out of high-tax states.
“Tech firms like Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Oracle have also announced plans to leave,” Fox Business reported. “California’s population dropped by about 135,600 people in 2020. Among them was Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who moved to Texas where the company was building a factory and his rocket business, SpaceX, has been testing spacecraft.”
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Grant Holcomb is a reporter at the Florida Capital Star and the Star News Network. Follow Grant on Twitter and direct message tips.
