in CA, (revenue or unemployment) so that we could resolve something and pay them more taxes. It was right around when there was talk of CA getting downgraded credit etc. The call to the general line was answered something along the line of "The ____ department is closed due to budgetary constraints, please call back at a future time." I called for a couple of months before I didn't get that response.

CA is so hard to work with. I frequently work on unemployment accounts and several years ago there was a problem with one of our unemployment tax accounts in CA which left us unable to pay. We tried for months to pay it with no luck so we just reported information to them and figured they would get back to us with penalties. An auditor final reached out to us and we were ecstatic to have someone to fix the problem for us even with the penalties. I wonder how many government auditors get welcomed with open arms.

A coworker is convinced they hold off because they need the additional revenue from the penalties because eventually businesses just have to hire, do business etc. I have so many stories about that state. Its an embarrassment.