Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the Senate on May 21, 2003, to expand the scope of a law which regulates the sale of pre-need funeral and burial contracts sold by funeral homes to cover the same product when sold by cemeteries. The funeral home law requires payments on the contracts to be placed in a trust fund, and 90 percent of the amount to be returned to the customer if he or she changes their mind. Certain pre-need contracts with cemeteries are covered by different regulations which are less stringent

The vote was 36 in favor, 0 opposed and 2 not voting

(Senate Roll Call 268 at Senate Journal 61)

Click here to view bill details.

Everybody knows Senator Toy introduced this bill to protect the turf of her Friends the Funeral Directors. Senator Toy owns a thriving Florist Shop and does thousands of dollars in business with the local Funeral Businesses including a home owned by the head of the Michigan Funeral Directors Association. Thank goodness Representatives Bisbee, Palsrok, and Accavitti recognized this self serving legislation for what it was and corrected it so that Michigan Consumers were truly protected. Obviously, their fellow house members agreed look at the vote that was cast.

Don't trust either the funeral or the cemetery people on this. Most of all, don't trust the politicians, who are laughing all the way to the bank. Here's the game, the name of which is "the protection racket state":
In the name of "protecting the public" they allow each group to write licensure and regulation laws for their industry that freeze out potential competitors, allowing existing firms to milk the public decade after decade. Then each group gets its pet lawmakers to introduce bills screwing the other side by tinkering with the regulations. This sets up a tremendous game for lawmakers, who take money from both sides with the usual result being that nothing happens.
Occasionally the balance is upset and a bill actually gets passed, the only sure outcome of which is that the public will pay even more, and one side or the other gets a relatively bigger piece of the loot.
Which side is the winner on this bill? Who knows, and who cares? - you can't trust a word that comes from either. The only thing you can be sure of is that the public will get screwed - again.

Contrary to the grumps on this site, these bills are a hugh step forward in consumer protection. It now requires all sellers of funeral goods to trust the money they take in. Simply put, the money is still the consumers money until the delivery of goods a the time of death. Cemeteries have raked in tens of thousands of dollars over the years leaving consumers high and dry when they changed their mind or had second thoughts about their "purchases". Brining everyone up to the level that funeral directors must trust helps everyone and "levels the playing field" by bringing cemeteries up to the standards of funeral directors. For years they have been trying to lower the standards to "compete". Now if consumers choose the goods offered by fast talking cemetery sales reps, they will be protected under Michigan law. This is a huge step forward for everyone!