BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE
Senator Lois Wolk, Chair
BILL NO: SB 159 HEARING: 3/13/13
AUTHOR: Fuller FISCAL: No
VERSION: 2/1/13 TAX LEVY: No
CONSULTANT: Austin
KERN RIVER VALLEY CEMETERY DISTRICT
Allows the Kern River Valley 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 district's board of
trustees, composed of three to five registered voters from
within the districts' boundaries. Cemetery 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). The
Legislature allowed the Elsinore Valley Cemetery District
(Riverside County) to inter up to 536 nonresidents in a
former Jewish cemetery, under specified conditions (AB
1969, Jeffries, 2010). In 2011, to facilitate a group
purchase of cemetery plots by members of the Congregation
Bet Haverim Synagogue, the Legislature allowed the Davis
Cemetery District to inter up to 500 nonresidents under
SB 159 -- 2/1/13 -- Page 2
specified conditions (AB 966, Yamada, 2011). Last year, to
help the Anderson, Cottonwood, and Silveyville cemetery
districts overcome the ongoing loss of business to nearby
veteran's cemeteries, the Legislature allowed them an
exemption from the state law restricting non-resident
burials (SB 1131, La Malfa, 2012).
The Kern Valley Cemetery District (Kern County) was
established in 1950 to provide cemetery services to
residents within its boundaries. In July 2009, the Federal
Veterans Administration opened the Bakersfield National
Cemetery some 40 miles from the District's cemetery that
will accommodate burials for roughly 200,000 veterans and
their families. During the most recent fiscal year, the
Bakersfield National Cemetery performed 642 burials, up
from the 588 burials performed in the prior year and the
221 burials performed in the cemetery's first year. After
the veterans' cemetery opened, annual interments in the
Districts' cemeteries decreased, creating significant
fiscal challenges.
To help the Kern River Valley Cemetery District overcome
the ongoing loss of business to the nearby veteran's
cemetery, a district official wants the Legislature to
grant the Kern River Valley cemetery an exemption from the
state law restricting non-resident burials.
Proposed Law
Senate Bill 159 allows the Kern River Valley Cemetery
District to inter in the ground or a columbarium -- a vault
with niches for urns containing ashes of the dead -- up to
40 people per calendar year who are neither residents nor
property taxpayers in any cemetery district and who do not
otherwise qualify for interment under the state law
governing public cemetery districts' interment of eligible
nonresidents, if:
The board of trustees determines that the
District's cemetery has adequate space for the
foreseeable future;
The District has an endowment care fund that
requires a contribution for every interment of at
least a minimum payment as prescribed by law; and
SB 159 -- 2/1/13 -- Page 3
The District requires the payment of a non-resident
fee, as set by law.
State Revenue Impact
No estimate.
Comments
1. Purpose of the bill . Responding to a special request
nearly 30 years ago, the Legislature allowed the Oroville
Cemetery District to bury nonresidents, if three conditions
existed. Subject to the same conditions, the Legislature
approved similar exceptions for the Elsinore Valley, Davis,
Anderson, Cottonwood, and Silveyville Cemetery Districts.
To help the Kern River Valley Cemetery District overcome
fiscal challenges caused by its proximity to a new veteran
cemetery, SB 159 grants the District a similar exception.
2. Precedent and limits . The Kern River Valley Cemetery
District is not the only public cemetery district that
faces challenges because of its proximity to recently
opened veterans cemeteries. The federal government also
recently established the Northern California Veteran's
Cemetery (Shasta County) and Miramar National Cemetery (San
Diego County). SB 159 builds on the precedent set by SB
1131 last year. Changing state law to help the Kern River
Valley cemetery district will likely invite similar
proposals from other cemetery districts that are located
near veterans' cemeteries. SB 159 may lay the groundwork
for incrementally exempting many more public cemetery
districts from the statutory restrictions on nonresident
interment. To limit the number of districts that may seek
an exemption, the Committee may wish to consider amending
SB 159 to apply the exemption, only to all districts within
50 miles of the exterior boundaries of a veteran's
cemetery.
3. Rethinking nonresident interment . Many public cemetery
districts are struggling financially. The loss of business
to veterans' cemeteries is only one of many factors that
contribute to these districts' fiscal plight. Districts
have lost property tax revenues both because of decreases
SB 159 -- 2/1/13 -- Page 4
in the assessed value of real property and the Educational
Revenue Augmentation Fund (ERAF) shifts, which reallocated
some districts' property taxes to benefit schools.
Cemetery districts' revenues also have been reduced by a
shift in funeral practices. Cremation, which is less
expensive than burial, is becoming more common. In light
of the numerous fiscal challenges facing public cemeteries,
revenues from nonresident burials could offer significant
financial benefits to districts that are struggling to
continue providing cemetery services. As an alternative to
exempting cemetery districts one at a time, or exempting
only those located near veterans cemeteries, legislators
may wish to reconsider the statutory prohibition against
public cemeteries' interring nonresidents.
Support and Opposition (3/7/13)
Support : Kern River Valley Cemetery District
Opposition : Cemetery and Mortuary Association of
California.