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County hopes to return taxpayers’ money
Published August 19, 2009
SEGUIN — Lose some money?
Guadalupe County Treasurer Linda Douglass might be able to help you get it back.
In her quarterly report to county commissioners, Douglass said Tuesday she was looking for owners of more than $4 million in unclaimed money being held for Guadalupe County residents or businesses by the office of the State Comptroller of Public Accounts.
Each year, the comptroller’s office publishes a list of Texans who either abandoned or left unclaimed CD, stock or bank accounts, uncashed payroll checks, refunds, rebates, utility deposits or similar property. Douglass said it was surprising to see how much of that money either came from here or belonged to people from here.
“We have more than $4 million dollars in unclaimed property in Guadalupe County alone,” Douglass told commissioners. “That includes Seguin, McQueeney, Kingsbury, Geronimo, Staples, Marion, Cibolo, Schertz and other communities.”
The top 25 listings in Guadalupe County involve half a million dollars, Douglass said.
Comptroller Susan Combs has an office that devotes all of its efforts to reaching out to those who are owed funds, and Douglass said it has asked her office to help find locals who are entitled to collect the money.
“My office will try to call some individuals we know personally who are on the unclaimed funds list to try to reach out to them and help them,” Douglass said. “Maybe people will read the list, and see someone they know on it. It happened to me — I found $50 that belongs to my son and daughter-in-law that we didn’t know about. You can just go on there, click on the link, and it’s divided up by Zip Codes, where you can search by name.”
Douglass said anyone with questions could contact her office.
“If anyone needs any assistance and calls us, we’ll help them any way we can,” Douglass said. “We’re trying to raise awareness and help people recover some of these funds.”
The local list has been placed on Douglass’ Web site, along with a link to the Comptroller’s statewide list and instructions on how to recover the funds.
Those who believe they might be entitled to some of the money must provide information to state officials that proves their identity, Douglass said.
“There are some hoops you’ll have to jump through, but they’re willing to work with people,” the county official said. “They’ll just want to make sure you are who you say you are and that the funds belong to you.”
Then she pointed to a column where it showed one county resident owed a substantial sum of money.
“I think I’d be willing to jump through some hoops for $83,000,” Douglass said.
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