In early October North America’s largest purveyor of Death Care services, Service Corporation International (SCI), received an approved zoning ruling to build Funeraria del Angel, a funeral home and cemetery in San Antonio, Texas.  You can read about the development in this article from the San Antonio Report titled “Against a school district’s wishes, the South Side is getting a new cemetery“.

Service Corporation International (SCI) first submitted the request a full year ago in October 2024, causing backlash from the Southside Mission Del Lago community and a meeting with local residents.

In what is somewhat a rare instance the local school district, Southside Independent School District, had actually passed a resolution in opposition to the 80-acre site becoming a cemetery.  According to the article, it turns out that “In Texas, cemeteries are tax-exempt, meaning they don’t have to pay property taxes to the local government agencies, including the school districts they’re located in.  Property taxes are a significant revenue stream for school districts — it’s how districts pay for day-to-day costs and how they pay off bond debt used for infrastructure projects. Limited funding by the state puts more pressure on school districts’ property tax collecting measures.”

Again, according to the article, “Financial pressures and growing enrollment in the area are in large part why the (school) district’s board of trustees adopted a resolution against SCI’s rezoning request with a 5-1-1 vote.”  You can see a copy of that resolution here.

Instead of a cemetery located on potential prime commercial property on the 80 acres in question many community members suggested that the vacant acreage could be used for residential housing or commercial uses such as grocery stores, restaurants, retail stores, and medical clinics– all uses that would carry with them a tax assesed value for the school district.

Residents against the SCI proposal also pointed out that District 3 already had 21 cemeteries — most of which have been around for a hundred years before zoning regulations.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  As America continues having changing views on Death Care I think “zoning issues” will become more and more top of mind in the construction of new funeral homes, cemeteries, and crematories.  The interesection of urban planning, resident wishes, and Death Care businesses is simply becoming more and more difficult to manage and reach amenable solutions for all parties.

In another view of this situation, I was interested in how people in cemetery’s don’t pay taxes, but my father always joked that they could vote.  Back in the 1960 Presidential election the claim is that Vice-President Richard Nixon would have won that election had he captured the electoral votes of Illinois. . . .a state in which he lost by fewer than 9,000 votes.

My dad used to always say that he would like to be buried in Illinois. . . .”because at least he could still vote there”.  So, if you think a debate over election vote totals is something new, you didn’t know about the accusations of the 1960 vote in Illinois.  According to some people, names on cemetery tombstones were scoured to get voter registrations for them and absentee votes from those “cemetery people” carried the Illinois election for John F. Kennedy. . . and put him in the White House!!!

Just for fun, here’s an article from Block Club Chicago titled “Chicago and rigged elections?  The history is even crazier than you have heard.”

More news from the world of Death Care:

Enter your e-mail below to join the 3,201 others who receive Funeral Director Daily articles daily

“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

A week ago today I woke up to the news of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore Harbor.  It wasn’t so long ago that I was in Baltimore for the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) convention in October 2022.  I was in awe of being in proximity to this historical area where Fort McHenry lent so much to the birth and early history of our nation.  And, I even enjoyed a great meal overlooking the that same harbor with some of my dear friends from the profession.

Needless to say, the tragedy that was the bridge collapse is heartbreaking. . . and it looks like at least six innocent souls will have perished during the event which makes it even more heartbreaking.

As an optimist I look for positives in almost all situations. . . I’ve found that attitude to be healthy.  In coaching being behind in the score of a game always gave an opportunity for a great comeback.  In funeral service there was always ways to improve visuals and/or services which created an opportunity for family satisfaction.  Being optimistic, like I said, has always been healthy for me.

However, there is also a big part of me, that while optimistic, is also realistic.  And, when I think of the bridge collapse I think of the enormous financial costs that will need to be born to put a new bridge in place.  And, wherever the money comes from there is a good bet that at least part of the construction cost will come from the State of Maryland.

That’s where I find this interesting and a potential connection to funeral service.  Earlier this month I read this article from ABC News Channel 7 out of Arlington, Virginia, that suggested that the Maryland state budget was about $761 million to the negative side of balanced and one of the ideas floated to rescue the budget was for a tax on certain services, such as funerals.

I saw the article, published on March 9th — almost three weeks before the bridge collapse.  I then concluded that there was not much possibility for this idea to move forward so it was one of those articles that I read in my research but just let go without seeing any reason to share it with my readers.  However, that was before the bridge collapse and the potential necessity of more funds being needed by the state of Maryland.

Who knows what will happen now?. . . But being a “realist” in society all but concludes to me that “anything is possible” going forward.

Funeral Director Daily take:  I don’t want to take a leap and say that an event will cause a tax, however, seeing the article and then the event in such a close chronological time period made me think of the possibility of the tax now happening.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

What thinking about it also did was make me think about sales taxes on funerals and funeral merchandise.  In lieu of no national sales tax each state is allowed to legislate if and how they will charge sales tax.  That creates some interesting scenarios for funeral service across the country.

For instance, at one time in Minnesota, a rental casket was taxable but a casket used for burial or cremation was not.  I don’t think that is still the case, but I’m not really sure.

And while this article is somewhat dated – 2015 – it does point out some of the interesting sales tax situations across the nation.

Taxing, spending, and tax fairness will always be an issue in America.  Implementing the taxes on as local a base as possible will be cause for a myriad of taxes and reasons for them. . . . .however, that is government decisions as close to home as they can be and in my book, that is not necessarily such a bad thing.

More news from the world of Death Care:  

Enter your e-mail below to join the 3,556 others who receive Funeral Director Daily articles daily:

“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”