York County Burial Allowance, Grave Markers and Flags

The duties are the State's, under 16 Pa.C.S. Chapter 155; see the Pennsylvania entry on county burial and grave benefits. York County publishes no burial page; the Department of Veterans Affairs (717-771-9218) takes the applications, and the amounts are in County Code section 347-5, adopted in 1989. What the code sets. $100 toward the funeral expenses of an eligible service person, and $100 toward the funeral of the spouse of a deceased service person. A flagholder on the grave of each service person who lived in the county, or who is buried in it and lived outside Pennsylvania: a flat concrete block with a metal medallion showing the war or peacetime service. The county pays the installer $2.50 a holder. $50 toward setting a government headstone, and $50 toward buying or lettering a private marker, up to the actual expense. An indigent burial fund of $2,500 for funeral, transport, grave liner, wreaths and honor guard costs. The 2026 county budget carries $45,000 for burial expenses and $5,000 for burial markers. Where the code falls short of the statute, which governs. Who counts. Section 347-5 defines a deceased service person as one who died on active duty, and says payment is made where the person died and was buried in a national cemetery. The statute (16 Pa.C.S. 15508) also covers anyone who served at any time and whose separation was honorable, and section 15509 requires at least $75 for every such veteran who lived in the county, wherever the death or burial. A veteran who died at home and lies in a church cemetery qualifies. The headstone base. Section 15513 makes the county provide a concrete or granite base for a free federal headstone, or the lettering on an existing family memorial, at actual cost, approved before the work begins. The code's $50 cap does not limit that duty. The deadline. The code does not mention it: apply within one year of the death (sections 15509 and 15510), except for a death in service. The spouse's allowance is for a widow or widower who had not remarried after the veteran's death. Flags. The commissioners buy the Memorial Day grave flags each year: 36,700 for 2025 ($28,259) and 37,800 for 2026, awarded on February 4, 2026 for $33,831. Veterans' organizations place them; a family may keep the flag after the first working day after Veterans Day. The code also pays each eligible veterans' organization $100 a year toward Memorial Day or Veterans Day.