DeSantis plans to offer $5,000 bonuses to out-of-state police relocating to Florida
(CNN) — Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis said he plans to sign legislation during an upcoming special session to award a $5,000 bonus to law enforcement officers who relocate to Florida to work.
DeSantis said the move comes as the state tries to address the needs of police and sheriff’s departments.
“In the next legislative session I’m going to hopefully sign legislation that gives a $5,000 bonus to any out-of-state law enforcement that relocates in Florida,” DeSantis said Sunday on Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“So NYPD, Minneapolis, Seattle, if you’re not being treated well, we’ll treat you better here. You can fill important needs for us and we will compensate you as a result.”
DeSantis announced last week he is planning to call the state legislature back for a special session aimed at adding “protections” for Floridians from federal vaccine mandates.
“We’re going to have a special session and we’re going to say nobody should lose their job based off these injections. It’s a choice you can make but we want to make sure we are protecting your jobs and your livelihood,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis previously announced he and his administration will continue to fight the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) proposed new vaccine rule for large employers, an emergency standard announced by President Joe Biden last month.
DeSantis said Sunday he believes Biden’s vaccine mandate is unconstitutional and will likely cause “huge disruptions in medical, in logistics, in law enforcement.”
“These people we’ve been hailing as heroes, the nurses we’ve said have been heroes, this whole time, they’ve been working day in and day out,” he said. “They couldn’t do their job on Zoom. They had to be there and they did it, and they did it with honor and integrity. Now you have people that want to kick them out of their job over this shot, which is basically a personal decision.”
DeSantis said he will continue to oppose mandates imposed by local governments in the state as well.