BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE Senator Lois Wolk, Chair BILL NO: AB 966 HEARING: 6/22/11 AUTHOR: Yamada FISCAL: No VERSION: 6/13/11 TAX LEVY: No CONSULTANT: Weinberger DAVIS CEMETERY DISTRICT Allows the Davis Cemetery District to inter nonresidents under specified conditions. Background and Existing Law California's 253 public cemetery districts are separate local governments that operate cemeteries and provide interment services, mostly in rural areas and suburbs that were formerly rural communities. County boards of supervisors appoint the cemetery districts' boards of trustees, composed of three to five registered voters from within the districts' boundaries. The districts finance their operations with small shares of local property tax revenues, by selling interment rights, and by charging for services. State law limits who may be buried in a district cemetery. Generally, cemetery districts can bury only residents, former residents, property taxpayers, former taxpayers, certain eligible nonresidents, and their family members. Responding to an Attorney General's opinion, the Legislature allowed the Oroville Cemetery District (Butte County) to inter up to 100 nonresidents in a former Jewish cemetery which the District had acquired (SB 1906, Johnson, 1982). When it revised the Public Cemetery District Law, the Legislature retained Oroville's special provision (SB 341, Senate Local Government Committee, 2003). Last year, the Legislature allowed the Elsinore Valley Cemetery District (River-side County) to inter up to 536 nonresidents in a former Jewish cemetery, under specified conditions (AB 1969, Jeffries, 2010). Formed in 1922, the Davis Cemetery District (Yolo County) serves residents and property taxpayers within a 43 square AB 966 -- 6/13/11-- Page 2 mile service area, most of which is in the City of Davis. The District's 2005 Master Plan projects that the cemetery's 25 acres will serve the community's burial needs for the next 100 years. Congregation Bet Haverim is the only synagogue in Yolo County. Members of the synagogue, including several families from outside of the Davis Cemetery District, want to purchase a group of plots to supplement an existing Congregation Bet Haverim group of plots in the Davis Cemetery. To accommodate this purchase, Davis Cemetery District officials want the Legislature to grant the District an exemption from the statute restricting nonresident burials. Proposed Law Assembly Bill 966 authorizes the Davis Cemetery District to inter up to a total of 500 interments of people who are neither residents nor property taxpayers in the District, if: The board of trustees determines that the cemetery has adequate space for the foreseeable future; The District has an endowment care fund that meets at least a minimum payment as prescribed by law; and The District requires the payment of a non-resident fee, as set by law. State Revenue Impact No estimate. Comment Purpose of the bill . Although statewide laws attempt to embrace a wide variety local conditions and circumstances, legislators can't anticipate every local need. Responding to a special request nearly 30 years ago, the Legislature allowed the Oroville Cemetery District to bury nonresidents, if three conditions existed. Last year, subject to the same conditions, the Legislature approved a similar exception for the Elsinore Valley Cemetery District. To facilitate a group purchase of cemetery plots by members of the Congregation Bet Haverim Synagogue, AB 966 -- 6/13/11-- Page 3 including some who are neither residents nor property taxpayers in the Davis Cemetery District, AB 966 provides the Davis Cemetery District with a similar exception. Assembly Actions Assembly Local Government Committee: 9-0 Assembly Floor: 78-0 Support and Opposition (6/16/11) Support : Davis Cemetery District; Congregation Bet Haverim; letters from 20 individuals. Opposition : Unknown.