New Jersey is the latest state to go after gift card funds under the authority of unclaimed property laws, with a twist; they want to actually take possession of the money spent on gift cards when the cards are first purchased, so that the State, and not the issuing company can benefit from the interest and other benefits of holding that money until it is spent, as well as end up with the value on gift cards that is never spent (i.e. the unused property law aspect).

However, the numbers reported don’t make a lot of sense:

Eristoff said the state currently collects money on unused money orders and travelers’ checks. He said the administration expects to collect $85 million in 2010-11 and make $135 million that can go to help finance the government.

Obviously they can’t make more money than they collect, although numbers like that are quite consistent with how States and the Federal government seem to do their books these days.