Occasionally I feel like shouting "Burn the rich!" One South Dakota legislator is working on a bill to "Burn to poor!"
Rep. Bob Deelstra (R-9/Hartford) plans to introduce a bill that would amend the statutes on county burial. Under current law, if somebody dies broke and has no family or friends to pick up the funeral tab, "it shall be the duty of the county commissioners to employ a person to provide for and superintend the burial of such deceased person" (SDCL 28-17-1)." Notice that just says burial. Neither that statute nor any other mentions cremation. The county has no authority to cremate indigents.
Rep. Deelstra would like to change that. He's heard from his local county commissioners that Minnehaha County spent $220,000, just about 6% of what it spent on human services last year, on burials for indigents. At the Minnehaha Funeral Home in Baltic, a no-frills cremation is $525 cheaper than no-frills burial. Chapel Hill Crematory offers a basic cremation for under $1500. The numbers on the back of Deelstra's envelope tell him that cremation could save the county $70,000 to $80,000 a year.
Rep. Deelstra's legislation won't require cremation; it simply offers counties the option to cremate indigents. Deelstra personally prefers decent Christian burial, but he sees a chance to grant counties a little money-saving local control.
One would think that legislation offering counties an option to spend less on the dead and more on the living would be an easy sell. However, such was not the case in 2005, when Senator Gary Hanson and Rep. David Sigdestad proposed similar county cremation legislation. That year, Senate Bill 151 passed by a reasonably comfortable 24&ndash11 margin in the Senate, but got crushed in the House 6&ndash62. A couple of my legislator friends can't recall what might account for those different outcomes, but somebody must have raised a stink between houses.
Rep. Deelstra's county cremation bill isn't in the hopper yet, but with session starting tomorrow, we should see final text soon. I agree with Rep. Deelstra that this is a good money-saving option for counties carrying out a sad duty. I'll be interested to hear any possible points of opposition that may arise.
Wow! Talk about timing the message:
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/osha-investigation-not-required-for-state-s-first-farming-fatality/article_8105b168-3a65-11e1-b651-001871e3ce6c.html
Family members are required by law to care for their deceased kin… unless they have no money, then the county pays. The county does not have the staff to track down the "daughter in Alabama who owns a multi-million dollar car dealership". A Pennington county commissioner recounted an incident where a week after a county paid indigent funeral a $6,000 headstone appeared on the grave.
By the way, when someone dies in the state prison either the family claims the body or the state cremates it.