CAMODOC-L Archives

From: "Sue Silver" <>
Subject: [CAMODOC] SB 1059 re: Historic Cemeteries
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 08:37:10 -0700

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/

This thread:

• [CAMODOC] SB 1059 re: Historic Cemeteries by "Sue Silver" <>