Illinois General Assembly - Bill Status for SB1471

Replaces everything after the enacting clause. Creates the Cemetery Oversight Act. Provides for licensure of cemetery authorities, cemetery managers, and customer service employees and provides for registration of employees of a licensed cemetery authority by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Includes provisions concerning findings, public policy, definitions, powers and duties of the Department, licensure, exemptions, grounds for discipline, civil and criminal penalties, administrative procedure, trust funds, business practices, cemetery associations, and consumer rights. Amends the Regulatory Sunset Act to provide for repeal of the Crematory Regulation Act and the Cemetery Oversight Act on January 1, 2021. Amends the State Finance Act. Creates the Cemetery Oversight Licensing and Disciplinary Fund. Amends the Crematory Regulation Act. Provides that the Department is responsible for enforcing the Act (now, the Office of the Comptroller). Makes changes in provisions concerning definitions, establishment of a crematory and licensing of a crematory authority, discipline, revocation and suspension of a license, authorization to cremate, performance of and training for a cremation service, recordkeeping, penalties, annual reports, investigations, testimony, administrative review, and pre-need cremation arrangements. Adds administrative provisions, including penalties, and home rule provisions. Amends the Vital Records Act. Provides that the burial permit shall include the place of disposition, and if the place is a cemetery, shall also specify the lot, block, section, and plot where the human dead body or cremated remains are located. Requires the State Registrar to implement an electronic reporting system that the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation shall have access to in order to enhance enforcement of the Cemetery Oversight Act. Amends the Crime Victims Compensation Act. Provides that the definition of "victim" shall also mean the immediate family of a deceased person whose body is dismembered in violation of the Criminal Code of 1961. Amends the Cemetery Protection Act. Changes definition of "cemetery authority". Provides new criminal penalties for certain violations of the Act. Provides that no cemetery company or other legal entity conducting or maintaining any public or private cemetery may deny burial space to any person based on his or her race, creed, marital status, sex, national origin, or color. Provides that cemeteries or burial grounds may designate parts for specific use by persons whose religious code requires isolation. Further provides that religious institution cemeteries may limit burials to members of the religious institution and their families. Makes other changes. Amends the Burial Rights Act. Provides that "cemetery authority", "interment rights", "entombment rights", and "inurnment rights" shall have the same meaning ascribed to it in the Cemetery Oversight Act (now, the Cemetery Care Act). Repeals the Cemetery Association Act and the Cemetery Care Act. Changes references to the Comptroller in various Acts to the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Amends the Funeral Directors and Embalmers Licensing Code to provide for the licensure of customer service employees of a funeral home. Makes other changes. Effective January 1, 2010, except some parts effective March 1, 2010, some parts effective July 1, 2011, and some parts effective immediately.

×