$1,000 Bonuses are Coming This Summer to Florida First Responders - including: Law-Enforcement Officers, Firefighters, Correctional Officers, and Emergency Medical Technicians.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis yesterday (5/5/21) said he expects distribution “throughout the summer” of $1,000 bonuses that will go to first responders across the state for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bonuses, funded with federal stimulus money, are tied to a record $101.5 billion state budget (SB 2500) that lawmakers approved last week.
The Governor said… “The budget will need to be signed,” and… “We’ll have to go through all the line items. It takes a little bit of time, there’s a lot of money at stake. But we will do that. And then once that budget is signed and the funds get released, we’re going to start getting these checks out.”
The money was part of budget talks, where Florida legislators set aside $208 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to provide money for state and local first responders, including law-enforcement officers, firefighters, correctional officers, and emergency medical technicians. All of whom, never quit working during the pandemic, while being on the front lines, working with the public – especially at the height of the pandemic, when PPE supply was low and so much was not known about the pandemic.