BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1225
Page 1
Date of Hearing: January 19, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1225 (Committee on Veterans Affairs) - As Amended: January
4, 2012
Policy Committee: Business and
Professions Vote: 8 - 0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires that certain conditions be met prior to the
sale, trade, or transfer of all or any part of a veteran's
commemorative property. Specifically, this bill:
1)Prohibits an individual from selling, trading or transferring
commemorative property that is removed from a cemetery.
2)Prohibits the purchase, sale, trade or transfer of
commemorative property unless an unincorporated association,
cemetery corporations, or religious corporation receives
permission from the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau to dispose of
that property.
3)Authorizes the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau to approve the
sale, trade, or transfer of commemorative property if certain
conditions are met.
4)Defines "veteran's commemorative property" to mean any
monument, headstone, marker, memorial, plaque, statue, vase,
urn, decoration, flag holder, badge, shield, or other
embellishment that identifies any veteran or group of veterans
and has been placed in a cemetery.
5)Specifies that a person who sells, trades, or transfers
commemorative property without prior approval by the bureau is
guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than
$100 or more than $1000 or imprisonment in a county jail for
up to six months, or both.
AB 1225
Page 2
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Costs of approximately $150,000 per year for the workload
associated with the requirement that the Bureau approve any
sales, trades, or transfers of commemorative property.
The bill currently requires the funding for this legislation
to come from the State Funeral Directors and Embalmers Fund.
The correct funding source is the Cemetery Fund.
2)Under correctional realignment instituted in 2011, the
creation of new misdemeanors should be viewed in a new light.
Counties are taking on significant new responsibilities for
housing and supervising felons. New misdemeanors place
additional pressure on counties to identify additional
programs, including incarceration and probation, at a time
when jail and program space - and attendant staffing - will be
at a premium in many counties. While the fiscal and
programmatic consequences of most new misdemeanors are likely
to be relatively minor, any additional cumulative pressure on
realignment efforts merits careful consideration.
COMMENTS
Rationale . This bill is intended to limit the amount of theft
and vandalism that has arisen in recent years in veteran's
commemorative cemeteries. According to the author, military
monuments, headstones, markers, memorials, and plaques have
become popular in the antiques and collectibles market. Because
of that popularity, property is being stolen or removed from
cemeteries and sold as collectibles. The purpose of this bill
is to stop the desecration of those cemeteries by making it a
crime to sell any commemorative property without the express
permission of the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau.
As currently written, the bill is confined to property that is
over 50 years old. However, the author has committed to
removing the 50-year limit and applying the provisions of this
bill to all veteran's cemeteries.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
AB 1225
Page 3