The Oregon State Capitol (John Gottberg Anderson / Bulletin file photo)

If Oregon’s Legislature has money to spend, it spends it. If it has record-breaking revenues, it looks for more revenue.

So when Oregon politicians attack the state’s kicker law as a crazy restraint on government spending, you have to wonder where the crazy really is. The state announced Wednesday that many Oregonians will receive a kicker refund on their 2017 taxes.

Critics correctly point out that the kicker law is a little odd. First passed in 1979, it requires the state to do something that can be difficult. State economists attempt to predict every two years how much revenue the state will get for the next two years. If the state collects 2 percent more than the prediction, the state must refund all the additional revenue over what was estimated. People get a tax credit. The corporate tax kicker now goes to schools.

Would it be better for the state to just keep that money? To answer that, think about whose money it is. Is it the state’s money? Or is it taxpayers’ money?

Oregonians drive the state’s economy. Because of their work, the state received record revenues. And despite those record revenues, the state is not getting record-breaking performance in high school graduation or some other important areas of government performance. Many in the Legislature have also demonstrated a categorical unwillingness to address a growing financial problem for the state — the size of Oregon’s public pension system shortfall. On top of that, some legislators are alway trying their best to pass more taxes.

If legislators can come up with a better way to constrain government spending, let’s hear it. Until then, let’s keep the kicker.

The state should also go back to sending Oregonians a kicker check in the fall as Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, has proposed, rather than hanging on to the money and distributing it in the form of a tax credit. Give it back to the people who paid it, so they may do with it what they wish.