RIDGWAY - Funeral homes and counties dodged a bullet shot by the state's General Assembly during fiscal year budget discussions earlier this summer.

In a letter dated June 12 from the Illinois Department of Human Services, coroners and funeral homes were told the 50 percent proposed budget allocated no money for indigent funerals and burials.

That cut has since been rescinded, according to a letter from the same source dated Aug. 5.

"The appropriation in the FY 2010 budget for Funeral and Burial payments is $12,581,200. This amount should be enough to serve those deceased that meet our eligibility requirements," wrote Kit Sponsler of the DHS.

Gallatin County Coroner Tony Cox, who is legislative chairman for the Illinois Coroners and Medical Examiners Association, said anxiety levels were high among those in the funeral business for much of the summer.

"It was a very strenuous time for a couple of months. You had people scrambling. Funeral homes were not accepting (indigent) cases. We started working with the Legislature and came to an agreement on Aug. 5," Cox said.

With no state funding and no one footing burial costs for the deceased, those expenses would be absorbed by the respective counties where indigents died, he said.

Cox had begun sending out forms to county coroners for dispositions of someone's remains that also explained the law in case state funding was not available.

"If this had stayed the way it was, it would be cremations for nearly all indigents," Cox said.

With state appropriations approved however, funeral homes are allowed up to $1,655 for an indigent burial. Low income families or friends of the deceased are reimbursed for the same amount if they pay for something more elaborate for a loved one, Cox said.

Cox who also owns Cox & Son Funeral Homes in Ridgway, New Haven and Shawneetown and Mike Weirauch of J.M. Weirauch Funeral Home of Harrisburg said the state reimbursement is not enough to pay entirely for a proper burial.

Weirauch said $1,655 absorbs costs for a casket, grave opening and equipment to lower the casket into the ground. Other costs a funeral home usually absorbs in the burial of an indigent include hearse transportation, employee time and labor and other facility uses. A single burial costs anywhere from $4,000 to $4,200.

"The state is usually behind with their reimbursements by 10 to 14 months. I've been in this business for 40 years, and the state has increased their allowance three times," Weirauch said.

Funeral homes, coroners and county officials can breathe a brief period of relief now with appropriations recently approved. But much like other human services that have been salvaged at the last minute, the question remains how long will money be fluid in the midst of the state's bleak financial situation.

"Unfortunately, I don't know of a quick fix to this situation," Weirauch said, foreseeing a return to earlier times when families did their own grave preparations including digging their own graves and putting remains in their own containers.

Or they can choose cremations.

"Cremations are more cost-effective for funeral homes. It becomes more prominent each year. We might be at 12 percent in Southern Illinois, but I've seen some funeral homes with as high as 25 percent cremations," Weirauch said.

scott.fitzgerald@thesouthern.com / 618-351-5076