211 companies take advantage of amnesty

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By NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star

It’s been a first-ever year for more than 200 businesses that handed over unclaimed property to the state under an amnesty program.

A total of 215 businesses have turned over about $311,000 in unclaimed property to the state since Treasurer Ron Ross began an amnesty program in January.

Ross has extended the amnesty to Nov. 1.

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Treasurer Ron Ross

Treasurer Ron Ross

And Ross expects his office will receive another $100,000 from audits of six companies now being conducted as a joint effort by the Iowa and Nebraska treasurers.

This unclaimed property primarily consists of  uncashed checks for worker wages, uncashed checks to vendors and overpayments.

A large hospital reported unclaimed property, primarily for customer overpayments or refunds, said Jim Burke, unclaimed property administrator.

Some businesses — banks, insurance companies, brokers —have routinely turned over unclaimed property to the state, which then tries to find the rightful owner or heirs.

In fact, it’s been a record-breaking year for unclaimed property payments, with $10.2 million paid out to folks who had a valid claim through June 2006 compared to last year’s $6.6 million, according to Burke.

The state received $12.9 million in new property coming in from businesses this year.

Ross started the amnesty program after beginning an educational program last year that included about a dozen workshops across the state on the law.

His message: “You’ve got somebody else’s money and you shouldn’t have it.”

Ross said he would look out at the audience, and the business owners looked like “deer in headlights,” unaware they had been breaking the law for years.

So he offered Nebraska businesses a six-month amnesty — now extended to Nov. 1 — a period where they could send in old unclaimed property without interest or penalties.

“My goal was not to spank the people who didn’t know the law, but to get the money,” he said.

The amnesty program gives them one chance to do the lawful thing.

Take payroll, said Ross. Many businesses have employees who leave and don’t come back for their paycheck.

That property doesn’t belong to the business, said Ross.

So after a year, the company must turn that money over to the state treasurer’s office, Ross explained.

The treasurer keeps the money for the person it belongs to or their heirs.

That way, people always know where to go to look for unclaimed property,  Ross  said.

The unclaimed property database includes between 400,000 to 500,000 people.

The unclaimed property is deposited in the state’s permanent school fund, where it stays in case heirs claim it.

The interest from the permanent school fund is divided among the public school districts across the state. 

In the past five years, the treasurer’s office has deposited $26,844,351.71 into the school fund, according to Burke.  

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.