DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A plan to mail out hundreds of millions and possibly even billions of dollars to state residents stalled in a state House committee this week.
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We have $3 billion in unclaimed funds in Georgia,” the bill’s sponsor, State Representative Matt Reeves (R–99th), told Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray.
The proposed change to Georgia’s unclaimed property system that passed the Senate unanimously last month would change state law to require the Department of Revenue to proactively match tax records with unclaimed property records and send checks to people for properties under $500 without the property owners filling out requests or searching themselves.
However, it also allows the state to keep money that remains unclaimed. That money would become state property, and that is what led to opposition in the House.
“This is the taking of people’s property. It is the taking of their property, in my opinion. And to me, the rights of those individuals supersede the state’s obligation to maintain those funds,” State Representative Deborah Silcox (R-53), said.
In 2024, the Department of Revenue made it easier for Georgians to search for unclaimed property in response to a Channel 2 Action News Investigation. In Georgia, you could not search for claims under $50.
After Channel 2 Action News started asking questions, the website was changed to allow searches for unclaimed money under $50 and even under $5.
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Georgia has $3.3 billion in unclaimed property.
But the proposed bill would allow the state to take money that goes unclaimed. Any unclaimed money after 25 years would go to the state. Small dollar amounts under $20 would become state property after just 7 years.
Ron Lizzi is an unclaimed property watchdog who has been pushing Georgia and other states to make just the kind of change the proposed legislation offers.
“The bad part was very bad, and that is that the Department of Revenue would have been able to take permanent ownership of some property, potentially hundreds of millions of dollars, and that’s just stealing,” Lizzi said.
Now, Reeves says he wants to cut everything out of the bill except the “Exact Match Program.” That would get rid of new cryptocurrency rules and also eliminate the provision allowing the unclaimed property to become state property.
“We’re thinking about revising the bill and giving it another try,” Reeves said.
However, the timeline is tight to get it back through the House committee and to the floor for a vote and back to the Senate before Sine Die.
“I think this is something that could benefit Georgians getting money back in their pockets,” Reeves said.
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