Collective Bargaining Bill Delayed By Partisanship
May 16, 2008 -- After an historic 69-29 cloture vote to bring the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act (H.R. 980/S.2123) on the floor of the U.S. Senate for debate, presidential politics, partisanship and the Senate's arcane procedural rules combined to temporarily stall progress on the bill that would give every fire fighter the right to collectively bargain. Read More...

Supermajority of Senators Vote to Consider Cooperation Act
May 13, 2008 -- In a remarkable show of bipartisan support for the IAFF and its members, 69 senators voted May 13 to consider H.R. 980, the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act. The 69-29 vote on the motion to proceed permits the Senate to debate and amend the bill. “Today, Senators from both parties stood up in support of America’s fire fighters, and stood up in support of our right to collectively bargain,” says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. “This vote is truly a testament to the strength of our union and the respect its members garner on Capitol Hill.” Read More...

Sprinkler bill veto overridden

COLUMBIA -- Lawmakers voted unanimously on Wednesday to override Gov. Mark Sanford's veto of a bill providing incentives to those installing fire sprinklers.

The bill now becomes law. The House voted 109-0 while the Senate applied its membership roll to an override vote without debate.

Sanford vetoed the sprinkler bill because he said the tax credits offered were large enough that they amounted to a subsidy. The bill offers property owners installing sprinklers a local property tax credit equal to 25 of the cost of the fire sprinkler system and an additional 25 percent tax credit from the state. The state tax credit would depend on a local government approving local incentives.

Sanford also wrote to legislative leaders that the bill was "constitutionally suspect" because not all property owners in the state would be treated the same, with some getting incentives based on what their local governments did and others unable to take advantage of the law.

The legislation, which also limits to actual costs the tap fees from utilities for sprinkler owners, was filed after a series of tragic fires in the state, including a Greenville hotel fire that killed six, a furniture fire in Charleston last year that killed nine firefighters and a beach house fire in North Carolina last October that killed seven South Carolina college students.