Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Unclaimed Property topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Revenue department proposes automatic return of small unclaimed property balances
Summary
House Bill 88 would let the Department of Revenue automatically return unclaimed property of $1,000 or less when it can validate an owner's identity. The department said automatic payments would quickly return roughly 90% of current holdings and reduce claim-processing steps.
House Bill 88, carried in the House by Rep. Marcia Bertolio (House District 75) at the request of the Department of Revenue, would authorize the department to automatically return unclaimed property valued at $1,000 or less when it can validate the apparent owner's identity and entitlement.
Representative Marcia Bertolio described the department's unclaimed-property holdings and the bill's purpose. "The Department is holding more than $148,000,000," she said during the hearing, adding roughly $133 million is cash and about $15 million is securities; the agency also holds over 1,500 tangible items in a secured vault.
Jason Lay, bureau chief in the Department of Revenue's Business and Income Taxes Division, explained how the proposed subsection would work: the administrator would verify the apparent owner (usually using tax data), validate identity and address, and limit auto-payments to property valued at $1,000 or less. Lay said the threshold would capture approximately 90% of unclaimed properties the department currently holds, and that 17 of 38 responding states in a 2024 survey already use some form of automatic return.
Russ Christianson, the department's unclaimed-property unit manager, said most holdings are cash from uncashed paychecks, insurance proceeds and similar items; tangible items (like jewelry) typically come from abandoned safe-deposit boxes.
Committee members asked about recordkeeping and proof of payment; department staff said claim files would retain supporting documents (IDs, social-security validation, trust documents where applicable) and that the system notes a claim as closed when paid. No opponents appeared during the hearing. The bill was left in committee for further consideration.
