Have you heard about the current economic state of California? Due by midnight on July 1^st each year, the yearly budget for the 2009-1010 fiscal year is late. Why should you care, right? Being the eighth largest economy in the world, California’s budget crisis is bound to have an impact on some of you. With a budget gap of $26 billion dollars, the state is dealing with some serious money issues.

Hopefully your personal budget at home isn’t seeing the kind of shortfalls the California budget is dealing with. At the Lampsen home, we’re getting by better than many I’ve talked to, but “doing well” in a downturned economy is not saying much. We’re still at the point where if unexpected money shows up, it’s greatly appreciated, and just that very thing happened the other day. An unexpected bonus came through at work — a couple American Express Gift Cards.

If you haven’t purchased or received these before, they’re basically like cash. You don’t have to redeem them at a specific coffee shop, bookstore, sporting goods outlet. You don’t even have to go to a chain restaurant and sit in a booth surrounded by historic memorabilia. No, these American Express Gift Cards can be used anywhere that American Express is accepted. Apparently this equates to over a million places.

Receiving unexpected cash flow is wonderful. I feel sorry for the vendors who provide the State of California with great service month in and month out, only to receive IOUs as payment. Controller John Chiang started sending them out July 2^nd, when the budget failed to pass. In the past, it was the employees who received the IOUs, which pay interest at somewhere between three and four percent–not bad, if you’re cash-rich and can wait until October (or whenever the budget eventually passes) to collect your money.

So far $355 million in IOUs have been sent out, mostly to 90,000 small businesses, and tax payers who are due a refund. The world’s eighth largest economy is in trouble. To make matters worse, three top national banks — Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase — all stopped accepting the IOUs as of last Friday.

I think there are a few business men and women out there hoping some American Express Gift Cards would show up in their mailbox, too. Available in amounts from $25-$3000, these little gift cards can buy everything from a used car to a tank of gas for that used car. I suppose that the high price of gas would make a $25 gift card more appropriate for a week’s worth of coffees as opposed to a tank of gas.

I suppose California State employees should be happy they actually still need to buy gasoline for their car, considering that they have a job and all. Though missing four days a month due to furloughs is probably hitting their pocketbooks in a rather unpleasant way. Surely if Governor Schwarzenegger and lawmakers can’t come to some agreement on how to close the budget gap within the next few months, there are employees who are going to be seeing pink slips in their inboxes. An even greater number will probably see IOUs.

At times like these, when the news is filled monetary doom in certain sectors of the government or financial market, I smile knowing that in the Lampsen home, we’re “doing well.” Still, the unexpected cash never hurts and certainly isn’t turned away. I’ll take a gift card over an IOU any day, and a card equal to cash is even better. Best of all is that unlike cash, if the American Express Gift Cards are lost or stolen, the unused portion can be replaced or refunded. That kind of financial protection is appreciated in a time like the present.