BILL NUMBER: SB 4 CHAPTERED 10/10/99 CHAPTER 604 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE OCTOBER 10, 1999 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR OCTOBER 5, 1999 PASSED THE SENATE SEPTEMBER 7, 1999 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 3, 1999 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 30, 1999 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 13, 1999 INTRODUCED BY Senator Johannessen DECEMBER 7, 1998 An act to amend the heading of Division 6 (commencing with Section 1170) of, and to add Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 1400) to Division 6 of, the Military and Veterans Code, relating to veterans, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 4, Johannessen. Northern California Veterans Cemetery. Existing law requires the Department of Veterans Affairs, in voluntary cooperation with the Shasta County Board of Supervisors, to develop a proposal for a veterans cemetery in Shasta County that will be owned and operated by the state. Existing law also provides that that proposal shall be submitted to the Legislature by July 1, 1997. This bill would require the department, in voluntary cooperation with the Shasta County Board of Supervisors and the boards of supervisors of other participating northern California counties, as specified, to design, develop, and construct a state-owned and state-operated Northern California Veterans Cemetery to be located in northern California. The bill also would (1) require the department to oversee and coordinate the design, development, and construction of the cemetery, (2) establish fees for interment in the cemetery of spouses and children of honorably discharged veterans, (3) establish the Northern California Veterans Cemetery Master Development Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, for the design, development, construction, and equipping of the cemetery, and (4) establish the Northern California Veterans Cemetery Perpetual Maintenance Fund for the maintenance of the cemetery. The bill would appropriate $520,000 from the General Fund, with $70,000 of that amount appropriated to the department for the oversight and coordination duties specified above and $450,000 appropriated to the Northern California Veterans Cemetery Master Development Fund for the Master Development Plan of the cemetery. The bill would require the department to apply to the State Cemetery Grant Program of the federal Department of Veterans Affairs for a grant of not more than $6,000,000, which amount represents 100% of the estimated cost for designing, developing, constructing, and equipping the cemetery. The bill would prohibit expenditure of the money appropriated to the department and the fund until the department has received written approval of the specified grant request and a commitment from the federal State Cemetery Grant Program that the funds appropriated under the grant are available for expenditure by the state, except that the department would be authorized to expend an amount necessary for completion of the grant proposal from the money appropriated to the fund. The bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute. Appropriation: yes. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The heading of Division 6 (commencing with Section 1170) of the Military and Veterans Code is amended to read: DIVISION 6. VETERANS BUILDINGS, MEMORIALS, AND CEMETERIES SEC. 2. Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 1400) is added to Division 6 of the Military and Veterans Code, to read: CHAPTER 9. NORTHERN CALIFORNIA VETERANS CEMETERY 1400. (a) (1) The Department of Veterans Affairs, in voluntary cooperation with the Shasta County Board of Supervisors and the boards of supervisors of other participating northern California counties as specified in Section 1401, shall design, develop, and construct a state-owned and state-operated Northern California Veterans Cemetery which shall be located in northern California. (2) The department shall oversee and coordinate the design, development, and construction of the cemetery. (b) (1) Those eligible for interment in the cemetery are all honorably discharged veterans and their spouses and children. A fee of five hundred dollars ($500) shall be charged for each spouse or child interred in the cemetery. (2) For the purposes of this subdivision, the department shall adopt regulations to specify the eligibility requirements for interment in the cemetery. (3) All fees received pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be deposited in the Northern California Veterans Cemetery Perpetual Maintenance Fund created pursuant to Section 1401. 1401. (a) For the purposes of Section 1400, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors may join with other northern California counties including, but not limited to, the Counties of Colusa, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity, to design, develop, and construct the cemetery. (b) All moneys received for the design, development, and construction of the cemetery shall be deposited in the Northern California Veterans Cemetery Master Development Fund, which is hereby created in the State Treasury. Notwithstanding Section 13340 of the Government Code, money in the fund is continuously appropriated to the department for the purpose of designing, developing, constructing, and equipping the cemetery. Moneys appropriated by the Legislature for these purposes shall also be deposited in the fund. (c) (1) All moneys received for the maintenance of the cemetery, including moneys received pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 1400, shall be deposited in the Northern California Veterans Cemetery Perpetual Maintenance Fund, which is hereby created in the State Treasury. Any state funding for the annual maintenance of the cemetery shall be appropriated by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act. (2) It is estimated that, after the construction of the cemetery, four hundred fifty thousand dollars ($450,000) should be appropriated annually by the state or the participating northern California counties, or both, to the department for the operating costs of the cemetery. (3) Expenditures for maintenance may not be more than six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000) per calendar year. SEC. 3. The Legislature hereby appropriates five hundred twenty thousand dollars ($520,000) from the General Fund as follows: (a) Seventy thousand dollars ($70,000) to the Department of Veterans Affairs for carrying out the provisions of paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 1400 of the Military and Veterans Code. (b) Four hundred fifty thousand dollars ($450,000) to the Northern California Veterans Cemetery Master Development Fund for the Master Development Plan of the Northern California Veterans Cemetery pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 1400 of the Military amd Veterans Code. SEC. 4. It is the intent of the Legislature that the state apply for and receive the maximum amount of federal funds available for the construction and development of the Northern California Veterans Cemetery. Accordingly, both of the following shall apply to funding of the cemetery: (a) The Department of Veterans Affairs shall apply to the State Cemetery Grant Program of the federal Department of Veterans Affairs for a grant of not more than six million dollars ($6,000,000), which amount represents 100 percent of the estimated cost for designing, developing, constructing, and equipping the cemetery. (b) The money appropriated under Section 3 of this act may not be expended until the Department of Veterans Affairs has received written approval of the grant requested under subdivision (a) and a commitment from the federal State Cemetery Grant Program that the funds appropriated under the grant are available for expenditure by the state, except that the department may expend an amount necessary for completion of the grant proposal from the funds appropriated under subdivision (b) of that Section 3. SEC. 5. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are: In order to commence with the design, development, and construction of the Northern California Veterans Cemetery at the earliest possible time, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.