Background

Career firefighters and paramedics perform invaluable services for their communities.  to enhance their skills, they often establish professional organizations to maximize training and educational opportunities.  In addition to their organization's professional purposes, they often sponsor services and charity events to give back even more to their communities.  These charities often include collection of funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, burn hospitals, working with Habitat for Humanity, and financially assisting numersous needy families in their communities.

In recognition to the value of the professional organizations in their cities, Chapel Hill and Raleigh have granted dues deduction to their employees associations.  With the modern computer technology, the basic cost for this service to local government is primarily limited to data entry.

Employees' dues deduction is not a new concept in North Carolina.  North Carolina currently performs this service for State Employees and Teacher Associations.  Most cities already deduct the association's dues for members of certain Fire and EMS organizations and some cities even pay the association's dues for their members- examples are the NC State Firemen's Association and the NC Rescue Squad Workers Association.