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A death tax lives on in Florida.
But a state legislator from Charlotte County — a funeral director no less — wants to smother this fee.
State Rep. Ken Roberson, R-Punta Gorda, introduced a medical examiner bill in the current session to curtail so-called cremation review fees medical examiners in nearly 50 counties and jurisdictions currently charge. “People pay taxes all their life,” says Roberson, founder and president of Roberson Funeral Home, with three locations in Charlotte County. “Why should you pay another kind of tax for a choice you make when you die?”
Some pieces of data Roberson cites back his proposition: Nearly 65% of Floridians choose cremation today, up from 50% a decade ago. Fees to cover the paperwork for cremations from natural deaths have risen in lockstep, in counties statewide. In Miami-Dade, for example, the fee has jumped to $63 from less than $20. Fees in Gulf Coast counties vary, from no cost in Collier and Charlotte to $35 in Sarasota and Manatee to $40 in Pinellas.
But Roberson, a Bradenton native who has been in the funeral home business since 1965, contends that in the technology era, the paperwork review for cremation is mostly digital, and quick and easy. That makes the tax a way to boost coffers, rather than cover a specific cost. “This isn't about medical examiners,” Roberson tells Coffee Talk. “It's about how these operations are funded. These are supplemental funds. It's time to rein them in.”
Roberson's bill, and a related bill in the Florida Senate from Sen. Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, would prohibit medical examiners or counties from charging fees for specific services.
Roberson's bill passed a committee before the Session began, and cleared another committee Jan 14. While Roberson acknowledges there is some opposition, particularly from the medial examiner community, he's optimistic the bill will survive the Tallahassee gauntlet.
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