California is going to delay sending out tax refunds for 30 days because the state doesn't have the money.

On one level, this is OK because they can't send out money they don't have.

On another level this is disturbing. People overpay their taxes for a variety of reasons:

They don't understand that they don't have to overpay,

They 're using it as a nudge to save more,

They're careless, or

They've overpaid because its safer to overpay than underpay.

It's worthwhile to note that the government encourages all of these:

They don't understand that they don't have to overpay because the government doesn't make this very obvious,

They're using it as a nudge to save more and using the government's muscle to help,

They're careless and the government isn't quite as quick as, say, a cashier at Wal-Mart when you offer up extra money, or

They've overpaid because its safer to overpay than underpay, even though the government has no carrot to balance the former with the stick of the latter.

Now, if you can't get your money back on demand, this sounds far less like a government and whole lot more like a Sopranos episode. Tony thought of his "constitutents" money as his own too.

BTW: I don't think it is chance that this announcement came out late on a Friday just before a long weekend.