-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [CASonoma] SB 1059 re: Historic Cemeteries Resent-Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 13:10:40 -0600 Resent-From: [email protected] Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 08:37:10 -0700 From: "Sue Silver" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Greetings, As originally written SB 1059 included a provision that requires the county tax assessors to utilize a postcard method to contact cemetery authorities who file Cemetery Exemption Forms to receive tax exemption on cemetery properties. After the Bill was introduced I contacted the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee to inquire about adding something that might help prevent the historic cemeteries from being sold for delinquent taxes. Three years ago I had contacted Dean Andal of the Board of Equalization with the same request. With his help, we had started to work on developing some language that could be added to the Revenue and Tax Code. Someone at BOE dropped the ball and we never completed it. This time, however, the committee's consultant, Martin Helmke, and an attorney with the BOE, Rose Marie Kinnee, responded, and we were finally able to have something added that I hope will help, even if a little. It is not perfect, but it is a start. Since we did not have an existing definition for "historic cemetery", we chose to have this apply to cemeteries that began to be used previous to 1900. This, of course, includes a great many of the historic cemeteries in the state so that this new code section could feasibly apply to thousands of cemeteries. The sections within SB 1059 applicable to the cemeteries are 256.6 and 256.7, which reads as follows: 256.7. (a) Notwithstanding Sections 254, 256.5, and 256.6, an affidavit claiming the cemetery exemption, as provided for in subdivision (g) of Section 3 of Article XIII of the California Constitution and Section 204, is not required to be filed in order to receive the exemption for any cemetery that exists, or is discovered to exist, in the unincorporated area of a county for which the assessor is unable to identify the legal cemetery authority, as defined in Section 7018 of the Health and Safety Code, that may by law claim the exemption for that cemetery, if both of the following apply: (1) The cemetery was used by residents of the state prior to the year 1900. (2) The cemetery is no longer used for current or future interments. (b) Any tax, penalty, or interest imposed upon a cemetery subject to this section shall be canceled pursuant to Article 1 (commencing with Section 4985) of Chapter 4 of Part 9, as if it had been levied or charged erroneously. Only time will tell if Sec. 256.7 will be of any benefit, but had it been in place in 1998 when the Cold Springs Cemetery in El Dorado County was about to be sold for delinquent taxes, perhaps the El Dorado County Pioneer Cemeteries Commission would not have had to claim "ownership" of that historic public cemetery through acceptance of a Quit Claim deed. In the past other historic cemeteries have been sold to satisfy delinquent property taxes. By law, the public acquired title to those cemeteries even though the boards of supervisors of the counties where they were situated did not officially claim the public's property. If your county has any "abandoned" cemeteries or cemeteries that may have no legal cemetery authority in attendance of it, you may want to contact your county tax assessor to advise that office that the cemetery may not be subject to taxation. Sue Silver, State Coordinator California Saving Graves www.usgennet.org/usa/ca/state/