BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1453
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1453 (Quirk-Silva)
As Amended April 22, 2014
Majority vote
VETERANS AFFAIRS 9-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Quirk-Silva, Ch�vez, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bigelow, |
| |Dababneh, Brown, Eggman, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Fox, Melendez, | |Calderon, Campos, |
| |Muratsuchi, Salas | |Donnelly, Eggman, Gomez, |
| | | |Holden, Jones, Linder, |
| | | |Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Ridley-Thomas, Wagner, |
| | | |Weber |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires the California Department of Veterans Affairs
(department), in voluntary cooperation with local government
entities in Orange County, to design, develop, construct, and
equip a state-owned and state-operated Southern California
Veterans Cemetery. The bill would also make all honorably
discharged veterans eligible for interment in the cemetery and
their spouses and children to the extent provided by federal law
and regulation. Additionally, the bill would require the
department to establish a fee to be charged for interment of
veteran spouses and children. Specifically, this bill :
1)Creates the Southern California Veterans Cemetery Master
Development Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, and would
require all moneys received for the design, development,
construction, and equipment of the cemetery to be deposited in
this fund.
2)Creates the Southern California Veterans Cemetery Perpetual
Maintenance Fund and would direct all moneys received for the
maintenance of the cemetery, including those moneys received
for the interment of a spouse or child, to be deposited in
this fund.
3)Makes proposals for the construction, placement, or donation
of monuments and memorials to the cemetery subject to review
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by a specified advisory committee and subject to final
approval by the Secretary.
4)Authorizes the cemetery administrator to accept donations of
personal property to be used for the maintenance,
beautification, or repair of the cemetery. Requires cash
donations to be deposited into the Southern California
Veterans Cemetery Donations Fund; a continuously appropriated
fund created by this bill, and would require the cash
donations to be expended for the maintenance, beautification,
and repair of the cemetery, as specified. By creating a
continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an
appropriation.
5)Declares the intent of the Legislature to appropriate funds in
the annual Budget Act to support the department in carrying
out the provisions of this bill. Specifies that if no
appropriation is made for these purposes, the department would
not be required to comply with the provisions of this bill.
6)Requires the department to apply to the Veterans Cemetery
Grants Program of the federal Department of Veterans Affairs
(USDVA) for a grant of not more than an unspecified amount,
which amount represents 100% of the estimated cost for
designing, developing, constructing, and equipping the
cemetery.
7)Declares the intent of the Legislature to prohibit the
expenditure of money appropriated to the department until the
department has received written approval of the grant request
and a commitment from the federal Veterans Cemetery Grants
Program that the funds appropriated under the grant are
available for expenditure by the state, except as specified.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the department, in voluntary cooperation with the
Shasta County Board of Supervisors and the boards of
supervisors of specified northern California counties, to
design, develop, and construct a state-owned and
state-operated Northern California Veterans Cemetery.
2)Requires the department, in voluntary cooperation with the
Board of Supervisors of the County of Monterey, the City of
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Seaside, the Fort Ord Reuse Authority, and surrounding
counties, cities, and local agencies, to design, develop, and
construct the state-owned and state-operated Central Coast
Veterans Cemetery, which shall be located on the site of the
former Fort Ord.
3)The Secretary of Veterans Affairs of the USDVA is authorized
to make a grant to any state for the purpose of establishing,
expanding, or improving a veterans' cemetery owned by the
state and operating and maintaining a veterans' cemetery.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, based on the Central Coast Fort Ord cemetery, the
cost of preliminary plans and working drawings will be in the
range of $2 million. The total cost of the cemetery is unknown
at this time, as site and scope have not been identified.
Because revenue sources for plans and drawings may ultimately
include the GF, and because this bill includes legislative
intent for a blank budget appropriation, this bill creates
considerable GF pressure.
Though the bill specifies legislative intent to not expend
appropriated funds until the state receives approval of a
federal grant, the bill also specifies legislative intent that
the department may spend what is necessary to complete the grant
proposal, which could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars
(GF).
In theory, after the grant application and preliminary plans,
most state expenditures will be reimbursed by the federal grant,
which would be awarded prior to the start of construction,
leaving the state's major fiscal exposure to maintenance and
operational costs, likely in the range of $500,000 annually. The
intent is about half of these ongoing costs would be covered by
burial fees, with the balance covered by the GF and endowment
fund contributions.
COMMENTS : Traditionally, veterans' cemeteries have been federal
responsibilities, but as the last century came to a close the
federal government enacted a cost saving measure by offering to
build cemeteries but let states pay the maintenance costs in
perpetuity as was done with the now completed Northern
California State Veterans Cemetery (NCVC), California's first,
and the Central Coast State Veterans Cemetery, which will be the
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second when complete.
Under the federal Veterans Affairs State Cemetery Grants
Program, the federal government will reimburse up to 100% of
the cost of establishing, expanding, or improving state
veterans' cemeteries, including the acquisition of initial
operating equipment, if the state agrees to cover the
administrative and oversight costs. These administrative and
oversight costs are offset eventually through federal veterans
burial benefits. The USDVA will not pay any off site costs,
land purchases, demolition costs or State employee costs such as
DGS may charge.
The administrative, oversight and operational costs are offset
by a federal plot allowance paid to the state for the burial of
veterans by the USDVA and the dependent fees charged by the
state. The percentage of those costs depends on the type of
cemetery operation. The federal Plot Allowance is currently
$734 and NCVC dependent fees are currently $500.
According to the department:
The burial rate must be determined and is the primary
factor that will determine the size, type and cost of
construction, as well as the operational costs of the
Veterans Cemetery. We will consider the veterans
population, veteran's death rate, and distance from
cities to the proposed location of the cemetery and of
existing active veteran's cemeteries. Riverside
National Cemetery is the closest National Cemetery to
Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, which is the
area that the proposed Veterans Cemetery would serve.
However, the locations of Bakersfield National
Cemetery to the north and Miramar National Cemetery to
the south were considered.
The National Cemetery Administration uses a 75 mile
radius to determine if a veteran is being served by an
existing Veterans Cemetery. The flaw in their logic in
determining if a veteran is being served within a 75
mile radius is that they do not consider natural
barriers, location of roadways, traffic and public
transportation, which are proven barriers in the
actual use by veterans of veterans cemeteries.
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Much of the area that our proposed veteran's cemetery
would serve is inside the 75 mile radius of Riverside
National Cemetery, but this fact will not prevent the
state from obtaining a federal grant to construct a
State Veterans cemetery. However, it must be
considered when determining our facilities burial
rate. For this reason we have not considered the
veterans population in Riverside or San Bernardino
Counties that may be closer to our proposed location.
We are considering the entire veteran population of
Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties as those
veterans would reside closer to our proposed location
than to the Riverside National Cemetery.
The National Cemetery Administration inters 13.5% of
the eligible veterans in their catchment areas (75
mile radius) nationwide. The Northern California
Veterans Cemetery (NCVC) inters 27% of the eligible
veterans within a 75 mile radius of the cemetery.
When determining the burial rate for the California
Central Coast Veterans Cemetery (CCCVC) CDVA and the
USDVA agreed on a 25% interment rate based on our
experience at NCVC. Understanding that there are so
many unmeasurable factors in determining the
percentage this is not a science, but an estimation of
the actual number of veterans that will be interred in
our proposed Veterans Cemetery.
Casket and Cremated Interments at the Proposed
Veterans Cemetery
USDVA Burial Rate Percentage - 13.5% = 2,124 veteran
burials per year, including dependent burials = 2,974
NCVC Burial Rate Percentage - 27% = 4,247 veteran
burials per year, including dependent burials = 5,746
CCCVC proposed Rate Percentage - 25% = 3,933 veterans
burials per year, including dependent burials = 5,506
Dependent burials are not considered in the above
figures and USDVA and CDVA agree that it averages an
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additional 40% to the total of veterans interred in
veteran's cemeteries.
The two State Veterans Cemeteries are distant from Orange
County; the Northern California State Veterans Cemetery is
located near Redding in Igo, California, and the Central Coast
State Veterans Cemetery will be located in Monterey, California.
Although the National Cemetery in Riverside is a beautiful
resting place for veterans, due to its distance from Orange
County, regional geography, limited driving routes, and the
population density of the region, the needs of Orange County
veterans, veterans from other southern California coastal areas,
and veterans' families are not met by the National Cemetery in
Riverside.
Analysis Prepared by : John J. Spangler / V.A. / (916)
319-3550
FN: 0003589