Are Oregonians Ready To Kick The Corporate Kicker? (OPB)

By Colin Fogarty

Portland, OR December 11, 2007 7:35 p.m.

Just as Oregon taxpayers are aglow with their kicker checks, a group of progressive activists is filing a ballot measure to get rid of part of the kicker -- the refund that goes to corporations. Colin Fogarty reports.

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Oregon’s kicker law requires the state to refund tax revenue when projections by the state economist are off by two per cent or more.

Oregon voters like it so much they enshrined the law in the state Constitution in 2000.

They may like it even more after the state sent individual checks totaling more than a billion dollars just in time for the holidays this year.

Some taxpayers are donating their kicker checks to schools or charities.

Now, Sal Peralta is one of several initiative activists hoping to eliminate the corporate kicker, since it usually sends millions of dollars to companies headquartered out of state.

Sal Peralta: "And so we feel that there is broad support for having particularly multi-state and out of state corporations pay their fair share."

This year’s kicker did not include refunds to large companies since state lawmakers diverted most of the corporate kicker to a rainy day fund. Though Peralta’s group is filing an initiative this week, voters wouldn’t see it on the ballot until November 2010.