Establishes the New York state veterans cemetery act

• Republican1

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Joseph A. Griffo says this is needed

In 2013, the legislature enacted for the first time in history, a New York State Veterans Cemetery Program Under the terms of this program, a Veterans Remembrance and Cemetery Maintenance and Operation Fund, was established as a means to provide funding for the construction, mainte- nance and operation of such cemeteries At this time, the legislature also appropriated $500,000 into such fund, and established a tax check off box on all state tax returns, to allow for gifts to be made to the fund. As federal monies are available for state veteran cemetery construction, but not for perpetual maintenance, the law that created the New York State Veterans Cemetery Program (section 368 of the executive law) provided that in order for the Division of Veterans Affairs to authorize the designation or construction of a state veterans cemetery, the Veter- ans Remembrance and Cemetery Maintenance and Operation Fund must have within its account, an endowment amount equal to fifteen years of perpetual maintenance funds for such cemetery. For an average size veterans cemetery, such would constitute a requirement of having the fund contain approximately between six to seven million dollars before a state veterans cemetery could be constructed or designated. Due to the declining effectiveness of tax check off boxes, when most returns are now filed electronically, as of January 2015, the fund contained less than $600,000. This bill would seek to have the Division of Veterans Affairs promote charitable giving to the fund, in order to raise money, and accelerate the time, for the construction or designation of the first state veter- ans cemetery. Such would provide additional funding for this purpose, and supplement the proceeds raised by the tax check off box. Similar programs of private giving, such as those targeted to build the WWII memorial in Washington, D.C. have proven highly successful. It is hoped that the promotion program directed by this bill could have similar results.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.