Death and taxes may be the only sure things in life, but funerals are another matter, at least for the poor.

The state Department of Human Services has notified funeral directors and cemetery owners that the state will no longer pay to bury the indigent, of which there is no shortage. Each year, the department says, it pays to bury about 10,000 people at a cost of $15 million.

But no more, thanks to budget cuts.

No one knows what might happen, but there are two likely scenarios, said Harvey Lapin, general counsel for the Illinois Cemetery and Funeral Home Association. Cemeteries and funeral homes might agree to provide services for free, or the burden will fall on local governments. Morgues might also fill up.

“That’s a possibility, I suppose, if people come in and say, ‘Sorry, we can’t afford this funeral … Here’s Aunt Millie,’” said Lapin, who has been practicing law in the funeral industry since 1968.

In a June 12 letter sent to funeral home directors and cemetery owners, Kit Sponsler, chief of the DHS Bureau of Local Office Transaction and Support Services, blames the General Assembly’s failure to approve the governor’s spending plan and gives instructions on how recipients can contact legislators. Payments for the 2010 fiscal year, which began July 1, will be “pushed” to fiscal 2011, he wrote. But there are no guarantees.

“Obviously, it would be contingent on available funding,” said Tom Green, department spokesman.

Jim Svec, director of the Svec & Sons Funeral Home in Berwyn, said his home tries not to take indigent people because the reimbursement from the state is not sufficient for him to operate his business.

“The amount of money they give us is not enough to break even,” Svec said. “Most (funeral homes) can’t afford to take public aid funerals.”

Svec said the state’s actions do not come as a shock to him.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” he said. “Even when the state was on good footing, we weren’t getting paid nearly enough.”

The state expects a funeral home to furnish the casket, arrange for the burial and handle other responsibilities for a funeral, Svec said. The total cost comes in around $2,500, but the state pays a maximum of $1,103 per funeral and $552 in burial costs.

During the past year, Svec said his funeral home has done one indigent burial, but he did not receive reimbursement. The indigent was not on Medicaid — although Svec was told the person was — so the state was not responsible for payment. Svec wound up footing the bill.

Svec said his home used to be more inclined to arrange public aid funerals in the past, when it was also arranging more traditional funerals, because the cost could be absorbed more easily. Now with inflation and problems from the state, it is not economically feasible.

According to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, the county buries between 200 and 250 indigents each year. They are contracted with a Homewood Memorial Garden cemetery in Homewood, and pay $239 for each burial.

William Taylor, an official at the medical examiner’s office, said in Cook County, the burial of indigents is covered by the county’s budget. However, if the state halts payment for public aid burials, that burden may fall to the county.

“We have a budget that we have to maintain,” Taylor said. “With the state (not paying) we’re going to go over that.”

When a body arrives at the medical examiner’s office, officials determine if the individual was on public aid. Previously, if he or she was a recipient of public aid, the state would pay to bury the individual.

“This is just something we’re going to have to deal with,” Taylor said. “If they die in Cook County we have to bury them.”

Nothing obligates funeral homes or cemeteries from providing services, Lapin said.

“Morally I feel like I should do it, but I wouldn’t be in business if I did,” Svec said.

The cutoff in state money will likely affect funeral directors more than cemeteries, Lapin said, because funeral directors are first in line.

“They’ll be getting the bodies,” Lapin said. “They might already have a body before they know it’s an indigent funeral.”

Some cemetery owners accept the indigent as a loss leader of sorts, Lapin said, building volume in hopes that folks with means will choose their graveyards. Others have figured out ways to stretch the public aid dollars.

Lapin recalled a Chicago cemetery owner, whom he refused to name, who once stacked indigent bodies six high. Occasionally, a relative would come along and want a body moved, and that’s where the real money was.

“There was a disinterment fee,” Lapin said. “He was doing better on the disinterments than the interments.”

GateHouse News Service contributed to this story.