BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1179
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Date of Hearing: August 3, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
SB 1179
(Vidak) - As Amended June 6, 2016
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| |Local Government | |9 - 0 |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
Yes
SUMMARY:
This bill establishes a process for public cemetery districts to
allow an owner of an interment right to transfer that right to
successors. Specifically, this bill:
SB 1179
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1)Allows an owner of an interment right to designate in writing
the person or persons who may be interred in the plot to which
the owner holds the interment right.
2)Requires an owner of an interment right to designate, at the
time of purchase, a successor owner or owners of the interment
right in a signed written designation deposited with the
district.
3)Allows a surviving spouse, registered domestic partner, child,
parent, or heir who has an interment right to waive the right
in favor of any other relative of the deceased owner or spouse
of a relative of the deceased owner.
4)Requires a person who purports to be the successive owner of
an interment right to execute a written affidavit under
penalty of perjury.
5)Provides that when a public cemetery district acts to transfer
ownership rights or make an interment on the basis of a
written affidavit described in (4), the district will not be
liable for any claims asserted in any action unless the
district had actual knowledge that the facts stated in the
written affidavit were false.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Any additional administrative costs to public cemetery districts
should minor and absorbable, and thus are not likely to result
in any state reimbursable mandated costs.
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COMMENTS:
1)Background. A public cemetery district is a form of special
district that provides cemetery and interment services and is
financed with public dollars (e.g., taxes, fees, and
assessments) and generates additional revenue by selling
burial plots to residents living within the district. Each
public cemetery district is governed by a board of trustees,
and sets the fees for burial rights sold in the district.
Once the purchaser pays the fee, the purchaser receives an
interment right. In most cases, an individual who purchases a
burial right is either buying the plot for a decedent
themselves.
2)Purpose. An issue arises when the purchaser of the plot ends
up not using it. Currently, if the purchaser of the burial
right dies and is not buried in the plot, there is no
mechanism for the interment right to be passed on to living
heirs. This bill seeks to clarify the rights underneath an
interment right, and provides the groundwork for passing on an
interment right to successors by allowing a purchaser to
transfer the right to a named successor on a designation form,
or through a testamentary instrument. This bill also requires
that when a named successor comes forward to claim the
interment right, the successor must execute an affidavit to
confirm his or her ownership.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
SB 1179
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