One Million Californians Have Not Redeemed Newsom’s Middle Class Tax ‘Refund’

One million eligible Californians have yet to redeem — or receive — the middle-class tax “refund” that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) sent to the vast majority of households in the state right before his reelection last year.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported:

You wouldn’t think it would be this hard to give money away, but around six months after California began issuing “Middle Class Tax Refunds,” more than 1 million households that were supposed to receive their payment on prepaid debit cards still have not activated them.

Recipients had to call the state’s debit card vendor, Money Network Financial, and jump through some hoops to activate the cards before they could use them to make purchases or withdraw cash.

There are various reasons given for people not claiming their money, including problems with the mail, the difficulty of finding help from the call center, and general suspicion among the public that the “refund” is a scam.

As Breitbart News has reported, the “refunds” are not actually tax refunds, and may be taxable by the IRS. In addition, they have been the targets of theft schemes:

Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), facing reelection, announced that his administration would be sending “inflation relief” checks to residents in the form of EBT cards to help pay for expensive gas and other goods.

The refunds were conveniently timed to begin arriving in residents’ mailboxes right before the election. Many people received letters that included a special EBT card loaded with refunds of up to $1,050 per household.

But when people try to access the funds — which are not technically refunds and had to be authorized separately by the legislature — many people are discovering the funds have already been withdrawn from their accounts.

The Chronicle has provided tips for those who believe they may be eligible for the money and want to claim it.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.