Submitted By: dixiegainer@gmail.com – Click to email about this post
SB 990 would change state practice around what is colloquially called the “Kicker”. Meaning, that money that is returned to taxpayers if revenue collected exceeds 102% of what was budgeted. If you’ve been an Oregonian for awhile like me, you remember getting kicker checks during the good years. A number of years ago, the law was changed to make it so that, instead of receiving a kicker check, taxpayers would receive the money as a tax credit on the following year’s taxes. That might have been all fine and good when we were talking about $100 kicker checks, but now we’re talking about an average of $5,800 per person! That’s more than a full month’s salary for a lot of people in rural Oregon. The government shouldn’t be holding onto that money for a year for convenience. That money belongs to the taxpayers and it should be returned ASAP. Unfortunately, SB 990 hasn’t been scheduled for a hearing. I encourage you to contact Senator Mark Meek, the chair of the Committee on Finance and Revenue in the Senate and ask him to schedule a public hearing and a work session ASAP.