Is the Growth Machine a casualty of the culture wars?

When business interests told the Tories in the UK that Brexit was likely to have many deleterious effects, Boris Johnson, who went on to become Prime Minister, was quoted as saying "F*** Business" ("Boris Johnson promised to “fuck business”, and that’s exactly what he did," New Statesman).

The Growth Machine thesis from urban sociology is focused on local government, and how political and economic elites, despite seemingly intra-elite competition, are united on a real estate focused pro-growth agenda, since real estate development is the primary source of revenue and economic activity for local governments.

"The City as a Growth Machine: Towards a Political Economy of Place" (American Journal of Sociology, 1976) lays out the concepts, which were expanded in a book, Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place. 

Political science has its own theory, that of the Urban Regime ("Urban Regime Theory," The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies).  

I argue that GM is better at explaining why, and UR the how.

Anyway, more recently, Republican culture wars, albeit more at the level of state government interfering in local economic development, but when there is some sort of state nexus, in some places, is triggering anti Growth Machine actions.

Florida and Disney.  The primary example is Florida, where Disney complained too late to make a difference, about Florida's various anti-gay legislative acts after being shamed and prodded by employees ("After protests, Disney CEO speaks out against Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' bill," NPR, 2022).  But it still enraged Governor DeSantis

Probably everyone in America has heard of Disney World, which is a major attraction in Orlando, which in turn has led to the placement of other attractions there (like Universal Studios Florida and SeaWorld), and is a major driver of Florida's economy--which doesn't have a state income tax.

Governor DeSantis attacked the special district structure Disney uses to operate its property there, which is massive, and spans two counties.  At the time of its creation, local government lacked the capacity to provide services to the level Disney required, so the Reedy Creek Improvement District was formed--like an urban business improvement district, but on a massive scale.

Last year, they changed the structure, not realizing it triggered $1 billion in bond payments by the two counties in which Disney World is located.  So they did a new bill this year.

They changed its organization and appointed political flunkies with no expertise but culture war bona fides to oversee the district.  Usually, in GM/UR politics, the people appointed to such boards work hand in glove with the business interests.  DeSantis appointed people who are oppositional.

But before that took effect, Disney had the board pass contracts making Disney pretty much impervious to DeSantis' political machinations.

He didn't take it well, and has been threatening all sorts of retaliation.

In the interim, Disney created a webpage outlining the economic impact of Disney in Florida ("Disney Shares ‘The Value of Reedy Creek’ Post on Community Outreach Site Outlining District’s History & Benefits for Florida," WDWNT) 

-- The Value of Disney Reedy Creek to Florida, Walt Disney World/Disney Connect

The firm pays more than $1 billion in taxes annually and employs 75,000 people directly and 16,000 indirectly.  Plus there is the multiplier effect of other jobs created as a result of the economic activity around Disney World. 

Today Disney announced it is suing Florida for what they've been doing on Constitutional) grounds of retaliation versus free speech ("Disney sues Gov. Ron DeSantis, alleging political retaliation," Washington Post).

I don't think this bodes well for Florida, because Disney's attorneys and facts are much better.  Plus, wrt DeSantis' political campaign for President, it will keep him in the news in negative ways.  Way more people like Disney than they like the culture wars.

Battery plants and red states.  If you don't believe in climate change, you don't want to encourage alternatives to fossil fuel consumption.  Electric cars are a threat to gasoline consumption.  Republicans, especially oil interests like Koch Industries, don't like that very much.

Electric vehicles need batteries, lots of them, and battery manufacturing plant are seen as a key element of the developing industrial ecosystem for electric vehicles.

Last year, Georgia's governor, Brian Kemp, got pushback for providing tax incentives to an EV plant ("Kemp, Perdue spar over planned Georgia electric car plant," AP).  

And in Virginia, Republican Governor Youngkin--with presidential ambitions--said no to a battery plant owned by a Chinese firm ("Youngkin blocked a battery factory from coming to Va. and an entire economic sector’s potential," Virginia Mercury).  Instead that plant and its estimated 2,500 jobs went to Michigan.

OTOH, the redistribution of manufacturing for electric vehicles will lead to more production in red states, which could have an impact on Red State government positions wrt electric vehicle production and climate change more generally ("The unlikely center of America’s EV battery revolution," "Battery factories could make red states a driving force for climate," Washington Post).

Bud Light beer.  Is excoriated because they did a promotion with a transsexual ("Anheuser-Busch InBev Executive Speaks Out About Bud Light Controversy," Newsweek).

M&Ms.  Trolled Tucker Carlson ("Tucker Carlson is once again enraged by "woke M&M's" lack of sex appeal," Salon) good ("M&M’s punked Tucker Carlson with Maya Rudolph Super Bowl fake-out," LGBTQ Nation).

Culture wars and the "natural" conservative alliance with business.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  Some donors are backing away from DeSantis on this issue.  

But at the end of the day, most big corporate donors are likely to acquiesce, so long as their particular companies remain on the conservative good side, and their primary issues--low taxes, minimal regulation--are covered.