Greenville News

The General Assembly has passed a fire sprinkler incentives bill, but it’s a weak one that’s not likely to expand the use of this valuable lifesaving equipment in buildings where they’re not required. This bill is yet another failure by the state Legislature in the area of fire safety. It needs to do better.

Earlier versions of the bill required that some existing buildings retrofit with fire sprinkler systems or that the state provide an incentive that covers the bulk of the cost of such a system when property owners voluntarily retrofit.

Instead, under the new bill, taxpayers who install sprinklers in buildings not required by law to have them are eligible for a property tax credit of up to 25 percent of the cost of the system if such an incentive is approved by the local government. The state will provide a matching income tax credit, but only if the local government has approved the local incentive.

Unfortunately, this bill lacks any real reason for property owners to retrofit buildings with lifesaving fire sprinklers. Four years ago after the 2004 Comfort Inn fire that killed six in Greenville County, the Legislature also failed to a pass a bill that meaningfully tightened state fire codes.

The latest bill is ineffective because it requires local governments to enact a property tax incentive. Given the tight economy and recent piecemeal state attempts at property tax reform, it’s doubtful many local governments will have the ability or desire to pass such an incentive. That makes the bill toothless to the extent that officials told The Greenville News in May that it would have no state fiscal impact because the incentives wouldn’t be used.

The bill does include one worthwhile component: Water utilities no longer would be able to charge exorbitant fees for connecting a fire sprinkler to the water system. Such fees were a problem in some parts of the state and could have prevented some business owners from installing a fire sprinkler system if they wanted one.

There seemed to be a strong will to get something done following the fire a year ago in Charleston that killed nine firefighters and another fire in North Carolina that killed seven college students from South Carolina. And certainly some Upstate lawmakers have wanted more stringent fire codes since the Comfort Inn fire. Unfortunately, the Legislature lost whatever momentum it had to get a sprinkler bill passed this session.

Greenville Sen. David Thomas deserves some credit for pushing hard for a stringent bill. He should continue his efforts next session. As a whole, the General Assembly again deserves a sharp rebuke for once again failing to act in a decisive way that will save lives.

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