Wisconsin Debates Increasing Subsidies for Burials

Huh.

The Legislature’s budget committee is considering whether to expand a program that helps pay the funeral and burial expenses of low-income Wisconsin residents.

The Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday is expected to vote on a bill that would allow the program to pay for funerals and burials that cost up to $4,500 instead of the current $3,500.

The maximum funding for each claim would remain at $1,500. But the Department of Health Services says the expanded eligibility might increase claims by 15 percent, or by 500 per year.

The department estimates the bill might increase the program’s costs by $538,000 per year. It estimates the program cost roughly $7.8 million in 2009.

If you run the math, that means that the taxpayers subsidized roughly 5,200 funerals in 2009.  I couldn’t find death statistics for 2009, but there were 46,526 deaths in Wisconsin in 2008.  So the taxpayers are subsidizing roughly 11% of the funerals in Wisconsin.  The state poverty rate is at about 10.7%.  Interesting, no?