91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Watch CBS News
Local News

California county returns millions of dollars after state sent incorrect school funds to 11 counties

By
Kayla Moeller
Kayla Moeller
A California native, Kayla was born in the coastal town of Monterey, and spent her formative years in the Bay Area. She is thrilled to be back in NorCal reporting only an hour and a half from home.
Read Full Bio
Kayla Moeller

/ CBS Sacramento

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.

In:

© 2026 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
const link = doc.createElement('link'); link.rel = 'stylesheet'; link.href = '/fly/fly/bundles/cbsnewscontent/css/cmp-banner.min.css?v=296763317a51cab90faa73f1bb146d5c'; doc.head.appendChild(link); doc.body.innerHTML = CONSENT_MESSAGE; } else { el.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', CONSENT_MESSAGE); } }); } function hidePrivacyMessage() { // Remove from the main document document.querySelectorAll(`.${CONSENT_MESSAGE_CLASS}`).forEach(el => el.remove()); // Remove from inside any iframes document.querySelectorAll('iframe').forEach(iframe => { const doc = iframe.contentDocument || iframe.contentWindow.document; doc.querySelectorAll(`.${CONSENT_MESSAGE_CLASS}`).forEach(el => el.remove()); }); } function activateGatedScripts() { // Handle both new format (cmp-gated-script) and old OneTrust/Ketch format (optanon-category-4) const gatedScripts = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('script.cmp-gated-script, script.optanon-category-4')); // Activate scripts sequentially with a small delay to avoid timing issues let delay = 0; gatedScripts.forEach(function(placeholder, index) { setTimeout(function() { // Skip if already processed if (placeholder.hasAttribute('data-cmp-processed')) { return; } placeholder.setAttribute('data-cmp-processed', 'true'); const newScript = document.createElement('script'); newScript.type = 'text/javascript'; // Try new format first (data-cmp-src), then fall back to old format (data-src) const src = placeholder.getAttribute('data-cmp-src') || placeholder.getAttribute('data-src'); if (src) { newScript.src = src; } else if (placeholder.textContent) { // Inline script - just copy the content newScript.textContent = placeholder.textContent; } // Handle new format attributes (data-cmp-attrs) - for both inline and external scripts const attrs = placeholder.getAttribute('data-cmp-attrs'); if (attrs) { const tempDiv = document.createElement('div'); tempDiv.innerHTML = '
<\/div>'; const tempAttrs = tempDiv.firstChild.attributes; for (let i = 0; i < tempAttrs.length; i++) { // For external scripts, allow defer/async. For inline scripts, skip them (not valid) if (src || (tempAttrs[i].name !== 'async' && tempAttrs[i].name !== 'defer')) { newScript.setAttribute(tempAttrs[i].name, tempAttrs[i].value); } } } // Copy other attributes from old OneTrust format for (let i = 0; i < placeholder.attributes.length; i++) { const attr = placeholder.attributes[i]; // Skip attributes we've already handled or don't want to copy if (!['class', 'data-src', 'data-type', 'data-cmp-src', 'data-cmp-attrs', 'data-cmp-processed', 'type', 'async', 'defer', 'src'].includes(attr.name)) { newScript.setAttribute(attr.name, attr.value); } } placeholder.parentNode.replaceChild(newScript, placeholder); // If external script, manually trigger window.onload handlers after it loads // This handles widgets that use window.onload for initialization if (src) { newScript.addEventListener('load', function() { // If page already loaded and script set a new onload handler, trigger it if (document.readyState === 'complete' && window.onload) { const originalOnload = window.onload; window.onload = null; // Clear temporarily to prevent loops originalOnload(); // Execute the handler } }); } }, delay); delay += 500; // 500ms delay between each script to allow full loading }); } cbsoptanon.onScriptsReady(function(cmp) { cmp.ot.targetingAllowed(function(allowed) { if (!allowed) { showPrivacyMessage(); } else { activateGatedScripts(); } }); cmp.ot.awaitInitialConsent(function(consent_model) { cmp.ot.addOnConsentChangedHandler(function() { cmp.ot.targetingAllowed(function(allowed) { if (allowed) { hidePrivacyMessage(); activateGatedScripts(); } else { showPrivacyMessage(); } }); }); }); });