| TO: | Honorable Lois W. Kolkhorst, Chair, House Committee on Public Health |
| FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB2927 by Howard, Donna (Relating to the regulation of cemeteries by state and local government. ), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted |
The bill would amend chapters 711, 713 and 715 of the Health and Safety Code, regarding regulation of cemeteries. The bill provides that intention to remove interred human remains or remove cemetery dedication require notification to the Texas Historical Commission and the county historical commission in which the remains are located. The bill would allow both entities to intervene in a suit brought to a district court of the county regarding the removal of dedication or remains. The bill would allow removal of cemetery dedication and remains in unknown or abandoned cemeteries if the court finds that such removal is in the public interest. The method of removal is also provided by the bill.
Costs associated with implementation of the bill are not anticipated to be significant.
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
The bill would require a county clerk to send a copy of a notice of an unknown or abandoned cemetery to the Texas Historical Commission, and file the notice in county deed records by an index referencing the land of the cemetery's location. The bill would allow the commission and the county historical commission to intervene in a suit filed by a landowner to remove a cemetery dedication if the cemetery is not operated by a cemetery organization. The bill would also require a municipality to maintain public cemetaries that it operates or has jurisdiction over and provides specific requirements on what the maintenance would entail. Under the provisions of the bill, local entities would have some additional administrative requirements; however, the costs associated with those are
not anticipated to be significant.
| Source Agencies: | 513 Funeral Service Commission, 808 Historical Commission
|
| LBB Staff: | JOB, CL, MS, LCO
|