Southern California Veterans Cemetery.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (department) is created in state government and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs is the head of the department. Under existing law, the department, in voluntary cooperation with the Shasta County Board of Supervisors and the boards of supervisors of specified northern California counties, is required to design, develop, and construct a state-owned and state-operated Northern California Veterans Cemetery. Under existing law, the department, in voluntary cooperation with the Board of Supervisors of the County of Monterey, the City of Seaside, the Fort Ord Reuse Authority, and surrounding counties, cities, and local agencies, is required to design, develop, and construct the state-owned and state-operated veterans cemetery, which shall be located on the site of the former Fort Ord. Existing federal law authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs of the federal Department of Veterans Affairs 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. This bill would require the 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 to be located at a specified site in the City of Irvine. Subject to specified requirements described in federal law, the bill would make honorably discharged veterans, their spouses, and eligible dependent children eligible for interment in the cemetery. The bill would require the department to establish a fee to be charged for interment of veteran spouses and eligible dependent children. The bill would create the Southern California Veterans Cemetery Master Development Fund and would require all moneys received for the design, development, construction, and equipment of the cemetery to be deposited in this fund. The bill would also create the Southern California Veterans Cemetery Perpetual Maintenance Fund and would direct all moneys received for the maintenance of the cemetery to be deposited in this fund. The bill would make expenditure of the moneys in those funds subject to appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to appropriate funds in the annual Budget Act to fund annual cemetery operations and maintenance and to enact other related necessary additional legislation. The bill would make proposals for the construction, placement, or donation of monuments and memorials to the cemetery subject to review by a specified advisory committee and subject to final approval by the secretary. The bill would authorize the cemetery administrator to accept donations of personal property to be used for the maintenance, beautification, or repair of the cemetery. The bill would require 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. The bill would require and authorize the department to adopt regulations, as specified. The bill would appropriate $500,000 from the General Fund to the department to be used for the grant proposal, as described below. The bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to appropriate funds in the annual Budget Act to support the department in carrying out these provisions. The bill would specify that if no appropriation is made for those purposes, the department would not be required to comply with provisions of this bill. The bill would require the department to apply to the Veterans Cemetery Grants Program of the federal Department of Veterans Affairs for a grant of not more than 100% of the estimated cost for designing, developing, constructing, and equipping the cemetery. The bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to prohibit the expenditure of specified moneys appropriated to the department until the department has received written approval of the grant requested and a commitment from the federal Veterans Cemetery Grants Program that the funds appropriated under the grant are available for expenditure by the state.