This is a wild story. One that will probably get buried, but let me summarize it: For years, California has been losing $20+ million a month to EBT fraud using a 1990s-era system. This year, the state modernized the banking platform, and fraud immediately dropped to $3–4 million a month. Meanwhile, the agency now claiming credit for the “success” costs taxpayers nearly $30 million a year to operate. It's not just a California problem, as other states have similar issues and results, but wow, this is how the government handles taxpayer dollars.