Connecticut towns care for wartime veterans’ graves

Each city or town’s chief executive appoints a committee of three local veterans to oversee care of covered graves. Covered graves belong to people who served in the English colonies’ military or naval forces before 1776, Connecticut’s forces, or the United States armed forces. The committee must see that the covered graves are suitably cared for and maintained. This provision takes effect July 1, 2026.

A city or town pays for suitable care when private people or cemetery trustees do not pay. This applies to the wartime service graves described in section 27-123. The town may use its own money or apply for available cemetery account money. Annual payment for a grave generally cannot exceed the usual care charge at that cemetery, or the charge at other cemeteries in the same town if it has no usual charge. The town may exceed that limit if the grave has settled appreciably. This provision takes effect July 1, 2026.

The law transfers $100,000 from the General Fund to the neglected cemetery account for grants to eligible municipalities. The grants cover municipal maintenance of burial grounds and cemeteries described in section 19a-308. The money may be used for grants to eligible municipalities to maintain neglected burial grounds and cemeteries. The transfer takes effect July 1, 2026, and the funds are credited for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2027.

The Veterans Affairs commissioner provides an online form for reports and notifies the relevant town within seven days after receiving one. The reporting process covers the wartime service graves described in section 27-123. Anyone may report a covered grave that has not been suitably cared for. The form must ask for the burial ground or cemetery, its city or town, and the name of the person buried there, plus any other information the commissioner requires. The notice gives town leaders the report, explains the care duties, directs them to inform the committee and take needed steps to meet those duties, and identifies available money. The form and notice requirements take effect July 1, 2026. The commissioner must notify the town no later than seven days after receiving a report.