California county returns millions of dollars after state sent incorrect school funds to 11 counties
Sutter County is sending back millions of dollars in extra funds given to it by the California State Controller's Office after a clerical error meant the wrong education payments went to 11 counties.
Sutter County receives about $25 million a month from the state to be dispersed across K through 12 schools in the area. But in January, their payment totaled $105 million. On Wednesday, the county sent it all back to the state.
The Sutter County Board of Supervisors was in disbelief Tuesday after learning they had to vote to send $80 million back to the State of California.
"They determined that it was just a technical or clerical mistake where they accidentally added an additional row to the Excel file, so everyone, well, a number of counties, received other counties' distributions," said Nathan Black, the Sutter County auditor-controller.
The impacted counties were San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus and Sutter.
Sutter County said it accidentally received Stanislaus County's money, which was shorted $60 million. But the state controller's office said Stanislaus was already reimbursed in January.
While the board agreed to send the money back, there was interest accruing on that $80 million, which the state hasn't asked for. The county doesn't know the exact dollar amount yet, but estimates it to be around $200,000.
"I think they want the principal back and to move on, so just wait and see. Because at this point we do intend to keep it," said Black.
The state controller's office said to CBS Sacramento that they've already implemented safeguards to prevent this from happening in the future, including strengthening the approval process, validation of changes and updating internal procedures.
"This was a one-off. I'm not aware of any other issues like this at all," said Black.
The county says they'll likely know the exact dollar amount for the interest toward the end of April.
It's unclear whether the county can keep the interest. Sutter County says it could help with its general fund.
