Here's a fun bit of government design: California gave you your own money back on a debit card, then set a ticking clock for when they'd take it right back. And the clock runs out April 30th.

Remember the Middle Class Tax Refund from 2022? Governor Newsom's big inflation-relief play, funded by a state surplus that now feels like a distant fever dream? The state sent out prepaid debit cards to millions of Californians — and roughly $240 million is still sitting unspent on those cards. In a matter of days, every last dollar gets swept back into the state's General Fund.

Let that sink in. A quarter of a billion dollars that belongs to individual taxpayers is about to be quietly reclaimed by Sacramento because people either lost the card, forgot about it, or never activated it in the first place.

This is what happens when the government decides to play bank instead of just cutting checks or issuing direct deposits like a normal institution operating in the 21st century. Debit cards get tossed in junk drawers. They look like spam mail. They expire. And the state — which wrote the expiration clause right into the Better for Families Act of 2022 — gets to pocket the difference. Convenient.

If you still have your card, activated or not, go to mctrpayment.com and check your balance immediately. If there's money on it, spend it, withdraw it, do whatever you need to do before the end of the month. The Franchise Tax Board's page has all the details.

And if this whole episode feels like it was designed to maximize unclaimed funds flowing back to the state — well, we'll leave that to your judgment. But when the government hands you money on a card with a quiet expiration date baked into the legislation, it's worth asking who the "Better for Families Act" was really better for.

Check your drawers. Check your wallets. You've got until Wednesday.