The state of Oregon is likely to refund money to taxpayers next year. The state’s unique “kicker” law requires that it do so when revenues exceed projections by more than 2 percent, and that’s happened more often than not in recent years.

The state does refund the money it’s required to do. Rather than sending taxpayers a refund in the form of a check, however, it simply deducts each taxpayer’s kicker amount from the amount they owe. In reality, then, Oregon decides for us how our kickers will be spent.

Voters approved the kicker law in 1980. It’s a strange beast: Sold as a way to help keep state spending in check, it does that only occasionally. It kicks in when tax revenues exceed revenue estimates made at the beginning of a biennium, in this case, in 2017.

The law does allow forecasters a bit of wiggle room. If revenues climb by 2 percent or less, the state keeps the extra money. But, if revenues go up by more than 2 percent, all the expected extra revenue, including that 2 percent, goes back to taxpayers. That’s true even during recessions.

When the kicker first became law, the state did what it does today. Rather than writing checks, it gave taxpayers credits against what they owed to the state. Then, in 1995, lawmakers voted to write the kicker checks to Oregonians and eliminate the tax credits. Republicans in the Legislature argued, successfully, that checks rather than credits served to assure voters they really were getting money back.

The system changed again with action by the 2011 Legislature that reverted the kicker program to its earlier tax credits rather than refunds. It did so at the tail end of a recession, and supporters argued that writing and mailing checks, at roughly $1 million each kicker year, was simply too expensive.

That’s debatable. The state should bend over backward to return to Oregonians money that Oregonians are owed. It’s time lawmakers returned again and began sending taxpayers checks. Hardworking Oregonians send the state money because they have a legal obligation to do so. The state should live by the same rules, and send money back when the law requires. Doing so would allow taxpayers to spend what’s rightfully theirs as they see fit.