House Bill 1522 in the 1999 Session of the Indiana General Assembly

House Bill 1522, captioned  "Cemetery preservation", was authored and sponsored by Rep. Markt Lytle of Madison, who is the Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development) <R69@ai.org>.  Co-authors of this Bill were Rep. James Bottorff <R71@ai.org> and Rep. Cleo Duncan <R67@ai.org>.  Also added as co-authors were Reps. Richardson, Oxley, Stilwell, Budak, Kruse, Steele, Cherry, Saunders, Mangus, Friend and Behning.

Though ten bills were proposed in the 1999 General Assembly session, HB 1522 is the only one to have survived the legislative process.

On February 25, 1999, it was passed by the full House by a vote of 97-0 (out of 100 Representatives).  The Bill was then referred to the Senate, where it was sponsored by Senators Server, R. Meeks, Wheeler and Lewis.

After meetings, hearings and testimony before the Senate Committee on Corrections, Criminal and Civil Procedures, HB 1522 was modified somewhat and, on April 6, 1999, it was passed by the full Senate by a vote of 49-0 (out of 50 Senators).

The primary modification was striking a provision in the House Bill which would have required that, after 1/1/2000, all grave memorials installed after 1/1/2000 would have been required to contain the name of the cemetery where the memorial was to be installed by the same process that the individual's name was added (usually engraving).  The Senators objected on the grounds that this would impose an additional financial burden on the families of Indiana's deceased citizens.

Rep. Markt Lytle, as author of the original Bill, filed a "concurrence", which means he has no objection to the changes made by the Senate.
 

Pictured above, first row:  State Representatives Jim Bottorff and Markt Lytle (co-authors of House Bill 1522), Governor Frank O'Bannon, Ashley Loweth (child who testified before the House of Representatives in support of cemetery protection and preservation), Larry Macklin (Indiana DNR Director) and Bill Shaw (Indianapolis Star-News writer).  Second row: ______, Charles Moore (cemetery activist), Rep. Cleo Duncan, ______, Rep.Tom Saunders, ______, Lois Mauk (INPCRP State Coordinator), _____, Ron Baldwin and Mary Jane Baldwin (INPCRP members).

The Bill was signed into law by Gov. Frank O'Bannon May 11,1999 (see photo above).  The effective date for the new law will be July 1, 1999.

HB 1522 represents an important beginning and a first step toward the goal of protecting and preserving Indiana's pioneer cemeteries.

Citations Affected: IC 14-21; IC 35-43.

Official Synopsis {with incidental commentary added by Lois Mauk}:

Cemetery preservation.

• Provides various measures to preserve cemeteries.
• Requires a person who lawfully removes a grave memorial to file with the county recorder certain information pertaining to the grave memorial.
• Provides that a person may not buy or sell certain items that have been removed from a cemetery {specifically includes grave memorials, grave artifacts, grave ornamentation, cemetery enclosures or other commemorative item.}.
• Provides that a person who disturbs the earth for agricultural purposes is not exempt from committing cemetery mischief.
• Provides that cemetery mischief includes disturbing, defacing, or damaging certain cemetery items.
• Prohibits a person from recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally damaging personal property contained in a structure or located at a cemetery or a facility used for memorializing the dead.
• Provides that cemetery mischief is a Class A misdemeanor.
• Enhances the penalty for the offense to a Class D felony if the pecuniary loss is at least two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500).
• Eliminates certain penalties for violations of cemetery preservation laws. In certain circumstances, exempts cemetery owners and owner of grave memorials from the cemetery preservation law {meaning owners of modern-day, active cemeteries}.
• Provides that county recorders are not obligated to acquire special equipment to record grave memorial information and provides standardized forms for filing this information.

{Pursuant to IC 35-50-3-2, "A person who commits a Class A misdemeanor shall be imprisoned for a fixed term of not more than one (1) year; in addition, he may be fined not more than five thousand dollars ($5,000)."}

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