Information maintained by the Legislative Reference Bureau
Updating the database of the Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS) is an ongoing process. Recent laws may not yet be included in the ILCS database, but they are found on this site as Public Acts soon after they become law. For information concerning the relationship between statutes and Public Acts, refer to the Guide.

Because the statute database is maintained primarily for legislative drafting purposes, statutory changes are sometimes included in the statute database before they take effect. If the source note at the end of a Section of the statutes includes a Public Act that has not yet taken effect, the version of the law that is currently in effect may have already been removed from the database and you should refer to that Public Act to see the changes made to the current law.

COUNTIES
(55 ILCS 5/) Counties Code.

55 ILCS 5/5-26004

    (55 ILCS 5/5-26004) (from Ch. 34, par. 5-26004)
    Sec. 5-26004. Use. Available space in memorial buildings constructed under the provisions of this Division, may be set aside for the use of organizations of honorably discharged soldiers and sailors of the United States without charge.
    Boys' clubs, associations of commerce, civic improvement and health bodies, farm bureaus and other similar non-partisan and non-sectarian organizations, not organized for profit, shall be deemed within the meaning of the words "public or civic purposes," and available space in such memorial buildings may be rented or leased at a reasonable rental to any such organization.
    In the discretion of the county board, the memorial building may be constructed so as to be suitable for use as a county orphans' home, or a county hospital, and may be used for either purpose.
(Source: P.A. 86-962.)

55 ILCS 5/5-26005

    (55 ILCS 5/5-26005) (from Ch. 34, par. 5-26005)
    Sec. 5-26005. Maintenance. Whenever any memorial building is erected through private subscriptions, as herein provided, or any veterans' memorial is erected, it shall be lawful for the county board or board of county commissioners, as the case may be, to appropriate such sums of money from year to year as it may deem reasonable and proper to cover any deficiency in the cost of the maintenance thereof.
(Source: P.A. 98-312, eff. 8-12-13.)

55 ILCS 5/5-26006

    (55 ILCS 5/5-26006) (from Ch. 34, par. 5-26006)
    Sec. 5-26006. Exempt from taxation. Memorial buildings erected in accordance with the provisions of this Division shall be deemed county property and shall be exempt from taxation.
(Source: P.A. 86-962.)

55 ILCS 5/Div. 5-27

 
    (55 ILCS 5/Div. 5-27 heading)
Division 5-27. Burial of Indigent
Veterans and their Families

55 ILCS 5/5-27001

    (55 ILCS 5/5-27001) (from Ch. 34, par. 5-27001)
    Sec. 5-27001. Appointment of person to have charge of interment. Each county board shall designate some suitable person or persons to serve without compensation, who shall cause to be properly interred the body of any honorably discharged veteran who served in the army or navy of the United States during the Civil War, Spanish-American War, Philippine Insurrection, Boxer Uprising in China, or with the armed forces of the United States in World War I, World War II, during the national emergency between June 25, 1950 and January 31, 1955, during the Viet Nam Conflict between January 1, 1961 and May 7, 1975, or with the armed forces of the United States in any congressionally sanctioned war or conflict after the Viet Nam Conflict, or their mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, widows, widowers or minor children, who may hereafter die in such county, without having sufficient means to defray the funeral expenses. This Division shall not apply to such mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, widows or widowers, if they were recipients of public assistance at the time of death.
(Source: P.A. 96-98, eff. 1-1-10.)

55 ILCS 5/5-27002

    (55 ILCS 5/5-27002) (from Ch. 34, par. 5-27002)
    Sec. 5-27002. Fees. The expense of such burial shall not exceed the sum of $900; such burial shall not be made in any cemetery or burial ground used exclusively for the burial of the pauper dead, or in that portion of any burial ground so used. In case relatives of the deceased, who are unable to bear the expenses of burial, desire to conduct the funeral, they may be allowed to do so, and the expense thereof shall be paid as hereinafter provided.
(Source: P.A. 96-98, eff. 1-1-10.)

55 ILCS 5/5-27003

    (55 ILCS 5/5-27003) (from Ch. 34, par. 5-27003)
    Sec. 5-27003. Expenses paid by county. The expenses of such burial and headstone shall be paid by the county in which such veteran or his or her mother, father, husband, wife, widow, widower or minor children resided at the time of such death; and the county board in such counties under township organization, or county commissioners in such counties not under township organization, is authorized and directed to audit the account, and pay the said expenses in a similar manner as other accounts against such county are audited and paid: Provided, that nothing in this Division contained shall apply to the burial of veterans who are residents of the Veterans' Home at the time of their death.
(Source: P.A. 86-962.)

55 ILCS 5/Div. 5-28

 
    (55 ILCS 5/Div. 5-28 heading)
Division 5-28. Soldiers' and Sailors' Burial Fund

55 ILCS 5/5-28001

    (55 ILCS 5/5-28001) (from Ch. 34, par. 5-28001)
    Sec. 5-28001. County may procure burial grounds. The county board of each county has power to purchase suitable sites for burial grounds for deceased personnel of the Armed Services of the United States who died in service and for honorably discharged veterans who served in the armed forces of the United States during the Civil War, Spanish-American War, Philippine Insurrection, Boxer Uprising in China, World War I, World War II, during the national emergency between June 25, 1950 and January 31, 1955, or any time during the Viet Nam Conflict between January 1, 1961 and May 7, 1975, and their mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, widowers or widows, who may die without having sufficient means to purchase a grave and defray funeral expenses; to establish and maintain suitable headquarters, cemetery buildings, and other auxiliary institutions connected with such burial grounds; and to pay the funeral and burial expenses of such persons and to provide suitable headstones for their graves.
(Source: P.A. 86-962.)

55 ILCS 5/5-28002

    (55 ILCS 5/5-28002) (from Ch. 34, par. 5-28002)
    Sec. 5-28002. Petition; tax levy. When one hundred legal voters of any county shall present a petition to the county board of such county, asking that an annual tax may be levied for the establishment and maintenance of a Soldiers' and Sailors' Burial Fund in such county, such county board shall certify the proposition to the proper election officials who shall submit the proposition at the next regular election in such county, in accordance with the general election law. The proposition shall be in substantially the following form: "For the levy of a tax for a Soldiers' and Sailors' Burial Fund," or "Against the levy of a tax for a Soldiers' and Sailors' Burial Fund". If a majority of all the votes cast upon the proposition shall be for the levy of a tax for a soldiers' and sailors' burial fund the county board of such county shall thereafter annually levy a tax of not to exceed one mill on the dollar ($1.00), which tax shall be collected in like manner as other general taxes in such county and shall be paid into the "soldiers' and sailors' burial fund," and thereafter the county board of such county shall annually appropriate from such fund such sums of money as may be deemed necessary to pay the expenses which will be accrued in carrying out the provisions and purposes of this Division.
(Source: P.A. 86-962.)

55 ILCS 5/5-28003

    (55 ILCS 5/5-28003) (from Ch. 34, par. 5-28003)
    Sec. 5-28003. Directors. When in any county such proposition for the levy of a tax for a county Soldiers' and Sailors' Burial Fund has been adopted, the chairman of the county board of such county shall, with the approval of the county board, proceed to appoint a board of three directors, all of whom shall be chosen with reference to their special fitness for such office, to have charge of the undertakings and activities contemplated by this Division.
(Source: P.A. 86-962.)