Tax rebate

State Sen. Lew Frederick, D-Portland, sees Oregon’s kicker law as a problem.

The kicker is that only in Oregon law that returns money to taxpayers when state economists fail to do the nearly impossible.

If state economists don’t guest state revenues right within 2% over two years all of the money above their forecast gets returned to taxpayers. The kicker kicks a lot.

Over the last 20 years, Frederick said last week it would have returned a cumulative average return of $5,874 to an Oregon taxpayer, if they have been an Oregon taxpayer all those years. And it meant the state missed out on $12 billion in revenue that could have gone to any number of good causes and programs.

That’s how many people look at the kicker. A wacky requirement — almost impossible to meet — that means lost opportunities for government to put the money to good use.

We wouldn’t recommend the kicker to other states.

But we do challenge the idea that it is government that necessarily knows best to decide what should be done with that $5,874 per Oregon taxpayer or $12 billion. Oregonians voted that they wanted the kicker.

That said, we don’t have a problem with asking Oregonians again if they want to keep the kicker or end it. That is the goal of Frederick’s Senate Joint Resolution 26.