At a press conference last month, Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced that the asset test to qualify for several state assistance programs--including the State Emergency Relief indigent burial program--would increase to $15,000, beginning November 1, 2019. This represents a significant increase from the program's current $3,000 limit. Click here for an article posted by the Detroit News reporting on the Governor's announcement.
In passing the FY 2019-2020 budget, the legislature cut the indigent burial program budget by $500,000 from last year. Then, last month, Governor Whitmer utilized a seldom-used procedure under which the state administrative board can transfer funds between programs within state departments to transfer $494,000 back to the indigent burial budget. That move was part of approximately $600 million in intra-departmental transfers across the state budget.