California Uses Unclaimed Money to Fix Budget Deficit
California tops the chart in unclaimed money laying with the state treasurer. The state is trying its best to get the unclaimed cash to the rightful owners; A Sacramento resident recently claimed $145 paycheck owed to him; A Rancho Cordova resident has a state pension savings account of $199 unclaimed.
California government is sending more than 9,000 memos every week to citizens who have unclaimed cash. The reminders are being sent week after week to businesses to inform them about any unclaimed cash or property in their name, aside from individuals.
The state’s Unclaimed Property Program receives unclaimed checks from various banks, insurance companies, utility services, employers, etc. that have been unclaimed for three years. State’s law makes it mandatory for them to hand over unclaimed cash and property to state treasurer. This has resulted in about $5.7 billion unclaimed from more than 11.6 million accounts.
This huge cache is looked at by California politicians as a valuable resource to fill its budgetary gap. Last year, California had $6 billion budgetary deficit. The state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office projects the deficit to reach $20.7 billion this fiscal year.
As the unclaimed cash is laying dormant even after rigorous attempts by the state, this treasure is likely to remain unclaimed for long time to come. Many citizens and the government are beginning to explore theses reserves to fill up the budget deficit.
Almost every American has some kind of cash laying unclaimed in their name. Surprisingly, they are not even aware of the fact. The California state has sent memos regularly and resorted to various means to inform people about any unclaimed cash in their name.
Finding this cash is made a lot easier now due to online presence of databases. With the websites like www.cashunclaimed.com , a person can access various databases of different states to search any unclaimed cash in their name.
