Oregon has $1 billion more dollars than we expected. Given all we have gone through in the last year, that’s good news – especially for taxpayers, thanks to Oregon’s kicker.
Fundamentally, the kicker recognizes that taxes belong to taxpayers, not the government. It’s simple: If Oregon brings in at least 2% more tax revenue than it budgeted for, that excess money is returned to taxpayers proportional to how much tax they paid. The average Oregonian will get more than $300 back.
Oregon is on track to bring in an additional $1 billion in tax revenues this budget cycle and could pay out a “kicker” tax rebate of up to $1.4 billion, state economists told lawmakers Wednesday afternoon.
Oregon economists delivered some major, if familiar, news to lawmakers on Wednesday regarding the state’s financial health. For the third forecast in a row, Oregon’s tax revenues are set to outpace what economists expected mere months ago.
With billions in federal dollars flooding the state, Oregon Democrats are taking big budget cuts off the table while slashing millions in taxpayer rebates.
Under the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan passed by Congress this month, the state is set to receive $4.2 billion in federal aid. About $2.6 billion of that total is bound for state coffers which Democratic state lawmakers want to stay filled.
It happened fast. Almost as soon as it was announced that state revenues were up and might trigger a $570 million kicker tax rebate, there were calls to suspend the taxpayer rebates or do away with the kicker.
Despite an economic recession brought on by a global pandemic, Oregon state revenues are higher than expected, thanks in part to unprecedented federal aid, and it could lead to a kicker on 2021 taxes.
Oregon’s budget picture continued its impressive comeback Wednesday, with a new revenue forecast suggesting the state will take in hundreds of millions of dollars more in the current budget cycle than expected months ago.
The politicians lamented that Oregon over-collected $1.6 billion in surplus taxes in the last budget cycle and that they had to return the over-collected funds back to taxpayers who overpaid through Kicker Tax Refund credits back to taxpayers.
The politicians said they desperately needed that Kicker money to balance the budget!
They lied.