Law Enforcement Salary Amendments

Changed the salary requirement from a mandatory match to the average of other agencies to a conditional increase to be 'more consistent' with other officers, dependent on legislative appropriations.

Deleted the specific exception allowing the salary range for the rank of major or division director to be reduced to match other DNR divisions.

Added a specific intent clause in the appropriations section directing that funds be used for the salary increases described in the bill.

Adjusted formatting and removed specific amendment markers to reflect the new text structure.

The salary equivalence requirement now compares DNR officers to the average of peace officers from both the Department of Corrections and the Department of Public Safety, rather than just the Department of Public Safety.

The text describing the director's duty to establish pay plans was updated to reference the new 'state average' standard instead of the previous single-agency comparison.

A new definition was added for 'State average law enforcement salary range and progression' to mathematically define the new comparison standard.

Added a new Section 2 explicitly appropriating $2,839,300 from the General Fund for DNR Law Enforcement in FY 2027.

Reformatted the Long Title and bill text to use bullet points (▸) for highlighted provisions and corrected minor grammatical errors in the statutory text.