June 11 Opposition to SB 777 (Richardson) – Abandoned Endowment Care Cemeteries

June 11, 2025

The Honorable Laura Richardson
California State Senate
1021 O Street, Room 7340
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: Opposition to SB 777 (Richardson) – Abandoned Endowment Care Cemeteries

Dear Senator Richardson:

On behalf of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, I write to respectfully oppose SB 777, which would require counties to assume ownership, maintenance, and liability for abandoned private cemeteries with their endowment care funds. While the bill is well-intentioned in seeking to address the deterioration of cemeteries across California, it fails to address the root causes of the problem and would place an unsustainable and unfunded burden on local governments.

Nowhere is this more evident than here in Marin County, where Mt. Tamalpais Cemetery—a 150-year-old endowment care cemetery in the center of Marin County—recently had its cemetery license revoked by the state Cemetery and Funeral Bureau following years of property and endowment mismanagement. Despite losing its license, the same operator has continued to control the cemetery, though still failing to perform basic fire mitigation and maintenance activities, allowing conditions to worsen, and leaving grieving families and Marin’s faith communities distressed.

Under current law, a private cemetery’s endowment care fund is intended to protect against this type of egregious mismanagement. The endowment fund provides for long-term maintenance through contributions from a portion of each burial plot sale. However, there are minimal legal requirements on how endowment funds (which total in the millions) must be invested, and Mt. Tamalpais Cemetery’s endowment is missing millions due to reckless investment mismanagement—funds were used to purchase personal real estate, classic cars, and speculative assets instead of safe, income-generating investments. The Cemetery and Funeral Bureau was aware that annual financial filings had not been submitted for a number of years before enforcement action began. During that time, millions more went missing.

SB 777 does nothing to prevent such failures for more communities in California in the future. Instead, it simply transfers responsibility to local governments, which have no history of operating cemeteries and no capacity to absorb such a responsibility. Counties are not in the cemetery business. Taking on a private cemetery means assuming all of its liabilities—physical, financial, legal, and emotional—without any input or resources.

However, we strongly agree with you that the current system for funding cemetery maintenance is ripe for reform. California’s required contributions to endowment care funds remained unchanged for more than a decade—from 2009 through 2021—despite rising maintenance costs and inflation. Only recently, through legislation (AB 651), were rates increased—from 3% of plot sales in 2022 to 10% in 2024. However, these adjustments are not tied to inflation in the future and no increases are planned beyond 2024. The prior long period of stagnation, combined with the absence of automatic adjustments, has left many cemeteries still severely underfunded and unable to meet even basic maintenance needs.

If the Legislature truly wants to address this crisis, it must focus on the systemic issues that created it:

1. Mandate stronger investment rules for endowment care funds to ensure they are protected and conservatively managed for long-term use. Allowable investments should be limited to secure, low-risk assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds, high-grade municipal bonds, and diversified, investment-grade mutual funds.
2. Increase and index the required per-plot contributions to ensure adequacy over time, rather than relying on periodic legislative action.
3. Strengthen oversight and enforcement capacity at the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau and Attorney General’s Office to detect and prevent mismanagement early—rather than catching up years later millions have already been lost.
4. Avoid revoking cemetery licenses without a transition plan, especially when religious practices are at stake. In the Jewish religion, burials are required within 24 hours. When a recent car crash in Marin tragically took the lives of four local teenagers, one Jewish family that lost their young daughter urgently sought a burial at Mt. Tamalpais Cemetery—close to their home and other family members—but was told no new plots could be sold due to the recent cease-and-desist order. Only by locating a private party willing to sell their existing plot was the family able to proceed. No family should face this kind of distress in a time of loss.

Marin County remains committed to working with the legislature on meaningful, long-term solutions—but SB 777 is not the answer. The bill shifts responsibility to local governments without addressing the underlying problems that have led to widespread cemetery mismanagement. We urge the Legislature to instead pursue targeted reforms to California’s Private Cemetery Law that will strengthen oversight, ensure responsible financial stewardship, and better support the thousands of private cemeteries—and the families who depend on them—for generations to come.

Sincerely, 

Mary Sackett, President
Marin County Board of Supervisors

CC:      Marin County Board of Supervisors
            Senator Mike McGuire
            Assemblymember Damon Connolly