SAINT PAUL, MN – Today, Rep. Joe Atkins (DFL-Inver Grove Heights) and Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South Saint Paul) held a press conference on an unprecedented effort to reunite Minnesotans with their property. This is the first time individual lawmakers have gone to such lengths to identify, find and return State-held unclaimed funds to constituents.
Over the last month, Rep. Atkins, Sen. Metzen (DFL-South Saint Paul), their Legislative Assistants Pete Vujovich and Isaac Russell, and intern Tony Olson, located 1,000 constituents living in District 52 with over $1.7 million in unclaimed property. Today they will be sending letters informing these constituents that the State of Minnesota is holding their property and how to retrieve it. Phone calls will follow. Under current law, Minnesotans receive no notice that the State is holding their unclaimed and lost funds.
“Our current approach to unclaimed property is unMinnesotan. The State of Minnesota is holding well over half a billion dollars of unclaimed property and isn’t even trying to find owners,” said Rep. Atkins. “It took just under four weeks for my staff and an intern, using their spare time a few minutes a day, to identify nearly $2 million dollars of unclaimed property held for people living in our legislative district. The State needs to get serious about returning this money to its rightful owners; we need to run ads and actively seek these people out."
“With over $700 million dollars in unclaimed property held by the state, I think that it is our duty to get this property to the rightful owners,” said Senator Metzen via statement. “Our offices, combined with the help of the department, are working to achieve that goal. Moving forward, I hope we can give the department the resources they need in order to return this property to people. We also may be able to replicate our process so other legislators can help get property that is owed to their constituents to the rightful owners.”
The amount of unclaimed funds being held by the State has reached a record $711.5 million, triple what it was in 2005. Five percent of Minnesotans have more than $100 in unclaimed property being held by the State. Rep. Atkins and Sen. Metzen do not believe the State is doing enough to reunite Minnesotans with their unclaimed property and are chief authors of legislation (HF 1693/SF 1645) to increase printed public notices about unclaimed property and require the Department of Commerce to actively locate people with unclaimed property.
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