Oregon Public Broadcasting

Next year, the state legislature could vote on a proposal to reduce the size of taxpayers’ ‘kicker’ checks.  The two candidates for the state treasurer’s office told OPB Monday they both support the idea of modifying the tax refund. Ethan Lindsey reports.

Some forecasts say state lawmakers will face more than a billion-dollar revenue shortfall when they reconvene next year.

A task force is debating how to modify the tax revenue forecast in the future – a change that would likely reduce the size of ‘kicker’ checks.

Instead, excess money would be put into a ‘Rainy Day Fund.’

On OPB’s Think Out Loud, Republican businessman Allen Alley said he backs the concept.

Allen Alley: “Creating reserves, and creating a structure where we create reserves within the budget is absolutely essential. It probably would have an affect of reducing the kicker."

Democratic State Senator Ben Westlund says he’s worked before on ways to modify the ‘kicker’.

Ben Westlund: “There’s dumb, dumber, dumbest and then there’s Oregon’s tax structure."

Oregon’s ‘kicker’ structure is in the state consitution, so can’t be changed except by popular vote. But adjusting the forecasting arithmetic could be done by the legislature.