Kotek floats stealing Kicker

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has just announced that she supports raiding the people Kicker Income Tax Refund to pay for funds relating to wildfire funding.

Governor Kotek was quoted as saying, “I do think this conversation — on a one-time basis — of supporting rural Oregon by potentially using a portion of the kicker tax break would be a beneficial approach.That would be very helpful for the state. Most of the folks who are going to be paying that are folks who do not live in fire-prone areas.”

The people Kicker is over-collected surplus tax revenue.

Voters put the Kicker Refund law in the State Constitution so politicians would not raid it.

For Governor Kotek to steal the Kicker requires that either she (1) refer a measure to voters asking them to change their mind like Senate joint Resolution 15 or (2) obtain a super-emergency 66% vote threshold by lawmakers to over-ride the Constitution with Senate Bill 1137.

As we have mentioned previously, Kotek and the liberal-Democrat majority in the State Capitol, have been over-spending the State Budget but under-spending on important matters.

Consider our graphic below that shows that the State of Oregon grew their last budget by 20% — but forgot to fund wildfire costs and sex offender registration costs.  Now they aim to steal your Kicker Refund to pay for wildfire costs they left out.

Right now, the State over-collected on taxes by a billion dollars in over-collected, surplus funds.  The average Oregon taxpayer will be able to claim their refund on April 2026 tax time.  Kotek wants to raid this very tax refund to fund programs she refuses to fund with her budget surpluses.

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