BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 966|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 966
Author: Yamada (D)
Amended: 6/13/11 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE : 9-0, 6/22/11
AYES: Wolk, Huff, DeSaulnier, Fuller, Hancock, Hernandez,
Kehoe,
La Malfa, Liu
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 5/19/11 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Public cemetery districts: nonresident burial
SOURCE : Davis Cemetery District
DIGEST : This bill allows the Davis Cemetery District to
inter nonresidents under specified conditions.
ANALYSIS : 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. When it revised
the Public Cemetery District Law, the Legislature retained
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Oroville's special provision (SB 341 �Senate Local
Government Committee], Chapter 57, Statutes of 2003). Last
year, 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).
This bill 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:
1. The board of trustees determines that the cemetery has
adequate space for the foreseeable future;
2. The District has an endowment care fund that meets at
least a minimum payment as prescribed by law; and
3. 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 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.
Formed in 1922, the Davis Cemetery District (Yolo County)
serves residents and property taxpayers within a 43 square
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
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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.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/23/11)
Davis Cemetery District (source)
Congregation Bet Haverim
Jewish Community Relations Council
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 5/19/11
AYES: Achadjian, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos,
Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Davis, Dickinson,
Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani,
Beth Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Grove,
Hagman, Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Roger
Hern�ndez, Hill, Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones,
Knight, Lara, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mansoor,
Mendoza, Miller, Mitchell, Monning, Morrell, Nestande,
Nielsen, Norby, Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel P�rez,
Portantino, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson,
Torres, Valadao, Wagner, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada,
John A. P�rez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Alejo, Gorell
AGB:kc 6/23/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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