PARK AND CEMETERY. 
PROPOSED ANTI-CEMETERY LEGISLATION 
The formation of stock companies to 
operate profit-making cemeteries in recent 
years has led to an erroneous but quite 
wide-spread belief on the part of the pub- 
lic and the legislators in certain states 
that all cemeteries are immensely profitable 
private ventures, and has resulted in some 
proposed anti-cemetery legislation in sev- 
eral states. In New York a bill is before 
the Legislature providing for the taxation 
of cemeteries. It is at present in the 
hands of the Judiciary Committee and no 
action has been taken on it by either House 
of the Legislature. In Massachusetts the 
proposed taxation of cemetery perpetual 
care funds has been averted by the passage 
of the following law, which is at present 
only awaiting the signature of Governot 
Foss : 
SENATE BILL NO. 25. 
To accompany the petition of the proprietors of 
Pine Grove Cemetery of Milford and others that 
personal property, held for the care of graves and 
cemetery lots be exempt from taxation. 
An Act to Exempt from Taxation Personal Prop- 
erty held for the Care of Graves, Cemetery 
Lots and Similar Purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives in General Court assembled, and by the 
authority of the same, as follows: 
Section 1. All personal property held by cities, 
towns, religious societies and cemeteries, whether 
incorporated or unincorporated, and by the treas- 
urer and receiver general of the commonwealth or 
by any corporation, for the perpetual care of 
graves, cemetery lots and cemeteries, for the plac- 
ing of flowers upon graves, for the care or renewal 
of gravestones, monuments or tombs, and for the 
care and maintenance of burial chapels, shall be 
exempt from taxation; but this exemption shall not 
apply to any such personal property held by a 
cemetery corporation which divides any of the in- 
come or profits of the business of said corporation 
among its stockholders or members. 
Sec. 2. All taxes that have; already been as- 
sessed in any city or town upon property within 
the description of section one of this act, if same 
remain unpaid or have been paid under protest, 
shall, if application for abatement has been or 
shall hereafter be made within the time provided 
by law for such application, be abated by the as- 
sessors of such city or town. 
Sec. 3. This act shall take effect upon its pas- 
sage. 
The following quotation from a recent 
issue of the Boston Advertiser , gives some 
indication of the general attitude of the 
public toward the matters affected : 
Yesterday, a bill to exempt money devoted to 
the care of graves from taxation was advanced in 
the house. There are many self apparent reasons 
to be urged in favor of this bill. However, it 
remains to be said that the practice is spreading 
of organizing companies to develop cemeteries as 
money-makng ventures. The large sums which 
have gone and are going into these enterprises and 
the sums which come from them have very gen- 
erally escaped taxation. If it were possible to 
discriminate between the two kinds of funds, there 
would be many cases where the state would be in 
every way justified in taxing cemetery funds. 
However, it does noto seem to be possible to make 
a distinction and, if this is really the case, there 
is nothing to do but grant the exemption which 
has been asked. 
In New York, the proposed taxation law 
introduced by Assemblyman O’Brien reads 
as follows : 
An Act to Amend the Real Property Law, in Re- 
lation to Excepting Certain Lands from Ex- 
emptions of Cemeteries from Taxation. 
The People of the State of New York, repre- 
sented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as 
follows : 
Section 1. Section four hundred and fifty of 
chapter fifty-two of the laws of nineteen hundred 
and nine, entitled “An act relating to real prop- 
erty, constituting chapter fifty of the consolidated 
laws,” is hereby amended to read as follows: 
§ 450. Lands used for cemetery purposes not to 
be sold or mortgaged. No land actually used and 
occupied for cemetery purposes shall be sold under 
execution or for any tax or assessment, nor shall 
such tax or assessment be levied, collected or im- 
posed, nor shall it be lawful to mortgage such 
land, or to apply it in payment of debts, so long 
as it shall continue to be used for such cemetery 
purposes; excepting, however, that land owned by 
a cemetery corporation and not in actual use for 
burial purposes shall be subject to taxation and 
assessment the same as other property. Whenever 
any such land shall cease to be used for cemetery 
purposes, any judgment, tax or assessment which, 
but for the provisions of this section would have 
been levied, collected or imposed, shall thereupon 
forthwith, together with interest thereon, become 
and be a lien and charge upon such land, and 
collectible out of the same. The provisions of this 
section shall not apply to any land held by the 
city of Rochester. 
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately. 
A temporary organization known as the 
“Allied Cemeteries Association of New 
York” has been formed to oppose the 
passage of the act, and has begun an 
active campaign against it. 
This association has no officers and no 
real organization. A number of cemeteries 
recently sent representatives to an informal 
convention held in New York to take 
measures to oppose the legislation pending. 
At that convention Richard T. Greene, at- 
torney, 43 Exchange place, New York 
City, was appointed chairman of a com- 
mittee of four, the other members being 
William S. Coggeswell, Louis L. Kahn and 
Charles Oechler. They issued a printed 
circular, to which they received a number 
of replies. The circular reads as follows : 
To All Cemetery Associations in the State of New 
York : 
New and startling- legislation is proposed at 
Albany. It is proposed to tax cemetery lands the 
same as all other lands. Only the spaces actually 
occupied by graves and the access thereto are to 
be exempt. It is also proposed that in New r York 
City, cemeteries be subjected to the payment of 
assessments for street openings and sewers. 
It is thought that' this proposed legislation may 
have its origin in the idea that all cemetery cor- 
porations are money-making concerns, well able to 
bear the burdens of taxation. This idea we be- 
lieve erroneous. Most cemeteries have barely suf- 
ficient income to meet their annual expenses. When 
the income ceases to be sufficient for proper upkeep, 
the cemetery is, as a rule abandoned, and soon 
obtains a neglected appearance. If the legislation 
now pending should become law many apparently 
flourishing cemeteries would, we believe, be aban- 
doned, because the state would by taxation take 
away the funds which otherwise would go to the 
preservation of the graves of the dead and the 
plots wherein the dead are interred. The com- 
mittee appointed by the allied cemeteries of Greater 
New York are desirous of obtaining at the earliest 
possible moment, for use in opposing these bills 
statistical information showing the practical effect 
upon the various cemeteries of the imposition upon 
them of taxes and assessments. We ask each re- 
cipient of this circular letter to respond at once, 
giving in as much detail as possible, answers to 
the following questions: 
1. If a real estate tax were assessed annually 
on your property, from what funds would you 
pay it? 
2. If real estate taxes were assessed against the 
owners of individual plots, how, in your opinion, 
could they be collected? 
3. If repeated assessments for neighboring- local 
improvements were assessed against your cemetery, 
from what funds would you pay the same? 
4. If taxes or assessments were levied against 
you which you had no means to pay, would you be 
able to sell certificates of indebtedness to raise 
funds wherewith to pay the same? If so, what 
security could you give for such certificates and 
would they bear interest, and from what funds 
would the certificates be ultimately paid? 
5. If you are able to pay taxes and assessments, 
would such payments deplete the funds at hand set 
aside for the permanent upkeep of the cemetery? 
0. What are your principal sources of revenue 
and what are your principal items of expense? 
7. Does your association conduct its business 
for profit or as a charitable or semi-public organi- 
zation? 
8. Would your trustees continue to serve your 
organization if the state should impose burdens of 
taxation which the trustees had no funds to meet? 
And if not, what would be the effect upon the 
cemetery? 
9. If the revenues of your cemetery were re- 
duced by taxation so as to become insufficient for 
the upkeep of the cemetery, what effect would that 
have as to the existing plots in which interments 
have been made? 
10. Please state any circumstances of peculiar 
hardship which such taxation laws would impose 
upon your cemetery. 
If you have not already joined the Association of 
Cemeteries we urge you to do so promptly. 
Hearings on the tax bills now before the legis- 
lature will be held during the week beginning 
March 24th, and your prompt response to this com- 
munication is urgently requested, as the informa- 
tion is needed for use before the Legislative Com- 
mittee. 
This committee also appeared before the 
committees of the Senate and Assembly 
opposing the legislation upon the ground 
that practically every cemetery organiza- 
tion under the Rural Cemeteries Act of 
1847 has difficulty in making ends meet; 
