Sec. 1. 37-B MRSA §504, sub-§6 is enacted to read:

6.__Budgets.__The director shall develop a separate, nonlapsing account for each of the veterans' cemeteries.__These accounts must be separately identifiable in the biennial budgets approved by the Legislature.__The budget for each veterans' cemetery must include all state and federal funds that are associated with that particular cemetery.

Sec. 2. Development of separate proposed budgets. By January 15, 2006, the Director of the Bureau of Maine Veterans' Services within the Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management shall submit separate proposed budgets for fiscal year 2006-07 for each state-operated veterans' cemetery to the Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs and the Joint Standing Committee on Legal and Veterans Affairs. For fiscal year 2006- 07, these budgets must be based on, and limited to, the total amounts previously appropriated to the Veterans Services program for the purpose of maintenance of these cemeteries.

SUMMARY

This bill requires the Director of the Bureau of Maine Veterans' Services within the Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management to develop and submit separate proposed budgets for each of the state-operated veterans' cemeteries.