Schools got $1.5B bonus from corporate kicker. Now they want YOUR kicker!

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

The original Oregon Kicker Tax Refund law returned over-collected tax revenue both to personal income taxpayers and business taxpayers.

In 2012, the school lobby helped put a measure on the ballot, Measure 85, asking to steal (permanently) all future over-collected corporate tax kicker refunds and to divert it to K-12 funding.

They pulled it off and got Measure 85 passed and since 2012 hundreds of millions of over-collected tax dollars have been stripped away from going to small businesses and put into an education fund.

This year alone, the over-collected tax revenue from corporations is a jaw dropping $1.5 billion. That is extra bonus money above-and-beyond what lawmakers expected.

Yet, a top school board official said this week, he hopes to take the people’s Kicker Income Tax Refund for education.

But wait.  When the school lobby sold Measure 85 to voters they promised this would fix school funding.

Look at what we found in the archives.

Defend Oregon said at the time in 2012, “Measure 85 will reform the corporate kicker by putting money into Oregon K-12 classrooms … That would mean lowering class sizes and restoring important school programs. These funds would also help get Oregon schools off the of the financial roller coaster and provide more stability, even in economically tough years.”

So schools are getting a $1.5 billion bonus and that is not enough.

Don’t forget schools have received nearly a half billion in funding from marijuana taxes as an extra bonus.

That has not been enough either for the school lobby.

In 2019, the school lobby helped pass the Corporate Activity Tax (CAT Tax) which taxed businesses on revenue (not profits) and helped rake in an extra billion dollar in extra money for schools every year.

We are approaching nearly $6 billion dollars in extra funding for schools over the past years, and we have …

– One of the shortest schools years in the nation.
– One of the worst absentee rates in the nation.
– One of the lowest graduation rates in the nation.
– One of the lowest graduation standards in the nation.

Do not let the school lobby and liberal politicians rob you of your kicker tax refund.

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