They’re Actually Trying To Privatize Lincoln’s Grave

Today’s installment of privatize-everything-and-make-corporate-profits-off-of-public-property takes us to lovely Springfield, Illinois and the final resting place of President Abraham Lincoln. City officials have reportedly been in talks with a private cemetery company to take over the historic Oak Ridge Cemetery which includes the 16th president’s tomb. It’s just another example of Republican public officials’ unbridled belief that absolutely everything can be handled better through the private sphere. Too bad then, that not even Wall Street has much confidence in the company in question.

StoneMor, which runs 277 cemeteries and 90 funeral homes in 28 states and Puerto Rico, is a publicly traded firm known for a relatively stable stock price and high dividends. Wall Street, however, is not entirely enthralled and considers the company’s debt less than investment grade.

Moody’s Investors Service last May attached a B3 rating to $175 million in bonds issued by StoneMor, meaning that analysts considered the company a high-risk, speculative investment. The issue, Moody’s said, was a high level of debt. The rating issued last spring was just one notch above junk-bond status.

The company has a questionable history, having taken over cemeteries of the Detroit Archdiocese in 2010, only to have the deal canceled by the archdiocese last year.  There is also the matter of top StoneMor executives’ involvement in another firm, The Loewen Group, which went bankrupt in 1999 under a swirl of investigations into underfunded trust funds and hints of consumer fraud.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Springfield’s republican Mayor Mike Houston kept these talks private until an executive session of the city council last week. Details of the proposal were not made public for another two days. There has been enough backlash that the Mayor now says the city will request proposals from other firms before finalizing a deal. It seems more likely, however, that when bringing this proposal to the executive session last week, the Mayor expected easy approval. The administration is now forced into spin mode.

Houston has said that the city is spending $400,000 a year to subsidize the cemetery, but cemetery executive director Michael Lelys said that just $220,000 of that has been spent with three months left in the fiscal year.

But why would private management of the cemetery be so bad, you ask?  “I’m not aware of any cemetery in the country that is a cash cow,”  funeral home director PJ Staab said. “A management company will have to make a living off sales because they have Wall Street to answer to.” What that translates to is cut corners to lower costs and maximize profits. In some places this has meant a real loss of aesthetic appeal.

“Park ‘em and mark ‘em, mow and go,” Stanaway said. “They don’t want headstones, they don’t want anything that’s going to slow down a mower or a weed whacker. If you like a green lawn with plastic flowers, it’s right up your alley.”

It would be a shame if this kind of cost-cutting approach were taken to the resting place of one of our greatest presidents. Maybe this never-ending push for turning over public property to private corporations is not surprising in today’s Republican party, but something seems quite off when it comes to the memory of the first, and greatest, Republican.

By: Sandi Behrns

Sandi Behrns is a noted policy nerd, new media & web developer, and consultant to progressive organizations and campaigns. She is a senior contributor to Liberaland, and the Executive Editor of Progressive Congress News.