BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 159|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 159
Author: Fuller (R), et al.
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE : 6-0, 3/13/13
AYES: Wolk, Knight, Beall, DeSaulnier, Emmerson, Liu
NO VOTE RECORDED: Hernandez
SUBJECT : Public cemetery districts: Kern River Valley
Cemetery District
SOURCE : Kern River Valley Cemetery District
DIGEST : This bill allows the Kern River Valley Cemetery
District to inter nonresidents under specified conditions.
ANALYSIS : Existing 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), Chapter 1039, Statutes
of 1982). When it revised the Public Cemetery District Law, the
Legislature retained Oroville's special provision (SB 341
(Senate Local Government Committee), Chapter 57, Statutes of
CONTINUED
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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), Chapter 40, Statutes of 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
specified conditions (AB 966 (Yamada), Chapter 111, Statutes of
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), Chapter 65, Statutes of 2012).
This bill allows the Kern River Valley Cemetery District
(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
The District requires the payment of a non-resident fee, as
set by law.
Comments
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.
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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 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.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
SUPPORT : (Verified 3/13/13)
Kern River Valley Cemetery District (source)
OPPOSITION : (Verified 3/13/13)
Cemetery and Mortuary Association of California
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The District states many times they
find that when the elderly get too old to take care of
themselves their families move them out of the area to live with
them. Many of these individuals lived here all their lives,
owned property and raised a family but did not make cemetery
arrangements before they moved away. When the individual passes
away the families contact the District to inter their loved one.
The district has to refuse them service because their loved one
would be considered a non-resident.
The Kern River Valley Cemetery District has enough land for
interments to meet the needs of the communities it serves for
many years to come. Of the 23 district acres only seven acres
are developed at this time.
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ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The Cemetery and Mortuary
Association of California states:
Cemetery districts, as entities of municipal government are
intended to serve their residents. The law therefore sets
forth specific connections where interments are
appropriate.
The expansion of the law to include non-residents, as
proposed by SB 159, creates an opportunity and incentive
for municipalities to engage in business practices that
compete with the private sector.
? There is no clear demonstration that our state's
citizens suffer from the lack of available services that
warrants the further expansion of authorization for
cemetery districts to inter non-residents.
AGB:nk 3/14/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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