Despite its notoriety for publicly embracing ‘woke’ virtue-signaling and cancel-culture, the Walt Disney Company had no scruples in choosing red-state incentives over draconian blue-state regulations when its own corporate affairs were on the line.
Disney will relocate 2,000 employees from its Burbank, California headquarters to Lake Nona, a planned development near Orlando, Florida, according to Fox Business.
Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, said the corporate employees are not connected to California’s Disneyland.
The company’s partial transition to Lake Nona will take 18 months.
D’Amaro cited “Florida’s business-friendly climate” as a reason for Disney’s move.
But it comes as part of a growing exodus that has seen historic population losses in blue-dominated states like California and New York as residents seek refuge from the Left’s failed policies.
Both families and businesses, large and small, are fleeing the surging crime rates, pandemic lockdowns and burdensome expenses for safety, freedom and low taxes in states like Florida and Texas.
Last year, Disney criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom for his “unwillingness to lift restrictions that would allow Disneyland to reopen.”
“We absolutely reject the suggestion that reopening the Disneyland Resort is incompatible with a ‘health-first’ approach,” she said. “The fact is, that since March we have taken a robust science-based approach to responsibly reopening our parks and resorts across the globe.”
Disney CEO Bob Chapek called Newsom’s public health orders “arbitrary.”
Disney currently employees more than 60,000 people at its Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando.
D’Amaro said Disney first considered the move to Florida in 2019.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle, and Tesla also opted to leave the failing socialist state for Houston and Austin, Texas.
California’s population fell by 135,600 people last year—the first recorded decline in the state’s 170-year history.
However, some conservatives worry that the “Calexit” will flood Republican-governed states like Florida and Texas with Democrats who will elect radical progressives and repeat the same cycle of failure.
