The latest buzz in local news is the new $50 fee put in place by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office. Everyone who dies in King County will now have that fee attached to the funeral home bill, which pays for an official review of the cause of death. Nobody dies for free anymore, at least not in King County.

A local TV news station found the story of Olivia Clark, a baby girl born with undeveloped lungs in Seattle, who only lived for one hour. The family later received an invoice in the mail which reportedly stated at the bottom, “King County death tax: $50”.

Outrageous? It makes for a compelling story on TV news, especially with the frustrated grandparents willing to give an interview about it, and it fits right in with creating the hysterical mood needed to gain viewers. One newspaper even went with the headline, “Family hit with tax for dead baby”.

If you’re out to stir up anti-tax sentiments, I don’t think you can come up with a better headline than that. I’m surprised Sarah Palin hasn’t already made this story her irrational rant of the week, but she’s in damage control mode this week, and can’t take the time to inflict new damage on others.

But is this a fair assessment of the fee? Let’s take a closer look at the decisions behind it.

Why does the fee exist?

Previously, the medical examiner’s office relied on health providers such as hospitals to recommend further investigation on a death. When they started reviewing cremations, however, the examiner’s office noticed that about 340 deaths over a two-year period had the cause of death listed incorrectly, and should have been investigated.

The $50 fee is supposed to cover the increased costs of reviewing every single death. It also speeds up the process, which takes about three hours once the examiner receives paperwork from a funeral home.

Why can’t the hospitals just report the cause of death?

About 170 of the deaths in the past two years required more investigation due to the health care treatment being listed as a contributing factor. If the hospital covers it up, who else is going to review it? It’s not like you can conduct your own autopsies. Plus, those are only the cases that they found out about. The county is concerned that they are missing other deaths by unnatural causes that need to be investigated.

Should they waive the fee sometimes?

Maybe. But think about the clerk in the medical examiner’s office. He or she doesn’t have the authority to waive fees whenever there is a hardship or a tragic case like this one. If they did waive the $50 for this person and not that one, they’d likely be sued by someone who thought that was unfair and subjective.

Why isn’t this part of their regular duties?

Now we’re getting into the budget stuff. The examiner’s office currently receives about $4.4 million per year, and employs about 30 people. About 13,000 people die in King County every year, but not all of their deaths were reviewed.

Now that they have to review every death, the costs have jumped significantly. They’ve already cut back in their department, reducing night hours and staffing levels to meet their target budget reduction (please plan your death accordingly). The fee only covers the costs of the review, and isn’t used for anything else, according to a spokesperson.

Why isn’t this part of our regular taxes?

That’s the larger question here; should we have a fee at all? Perhaps the medical examiner’s fee seems insensitive, because death is a touchy subject, and the bill appears fairly quickly after the person’s death.

The current budget for the medical examiner’s office costs each King County resident about 40 cents per year, although it’s also paid by non-residents who pay our county’s sales taxes. If we don’t like the fee, then we’d have to increase their budget to about 44 cents per year, per resident.

This is one of those jobs that only government can do, and it’s not like they’re wasting their budget money on extravagances. I’ve never seen the medical examiner’s Christmas party mentioned in the high society pages, and they don’t have BMWs in the motor pool.

Creating fees for government services in place of existing taxes is a growing trend, and certainly contributes to the feeling of being nickeled and dimed. The other option is to increase the regular tax burden and eliminate the fees. It’s your government; which do you prefer?