Redstate

And they never will.

Here's a hint, folks - It's. Not. Your. Money.

What I couldn't do with an extra $600 right about now...

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Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.

... and although I generally vote D, I would not vote for Jeff Merkley. The guy is just not Senator material. I am not a rabid fan of Gordon Smith by any means, but I'll take him over Merkley.

The kicker issue is a bit more complicated than you're giving it credit for, however. What the legislature wants to do with that money is not spend it, but carry it over as a surplus -- as it stands, the state constitution prevents them from doing that, which forces the government to play annual crystal-ball guessing games about revenue, and scramble for additional sources of funding if they lowball it. Last year was a good example of this. They were having to cut days off the school year, cut fire & rescue budgets, etc. because there was simply no money to pay for them.

Eliminating the kicker would save the state a tremendous amount of money and eliminate a great deal of budget uncertainty. Most politicians here claim that the kicker ends up costing Oregonians a lot more than the value of their check, when all is said and done. Whether you believe them is another story... and I was certainly happy to get that check.

I love that state! You get a partial tax refund each year, and you can get your doctor to help you commit suicide. What an odd state. Gotta tell you, I love the idea behind this kicker thing. We need that in Texas, but that would of course require some forward thinking by our legislature, which will NEVER happen.

but Oregon sure doesn't deserve any praise for its tax strategy. No sales tax... property owners take the brunt of the bill. I guess we aren't taxed enough though, because we are only now getting enough money to fund the State Troopers to have 'round the clock patrols.

So if you're going to up to no good in Oregon, be sure to do it between midnight and 6AM.... idiots!

Almost makes me want to go back to my hometown of Porkbarrel, Alaska.

...but not without a fight.

There are persistent calls by a minority of Democrats to keep kicker money in a "rainy day fund." That's funny on all kinds of levels. Some spending discipline might help, but that's unlikely since a Republican has not held the governor's office in decades.

Despite being a fairly divided state (all red, with most of the Liberals crammed in to two counties), Oregonian's are mostly united on tax issues. Sales tax proposals are always dead on arrival.

Living here in Oregon, formerly from Nebraska, I can attest that Oregon is a weird place. They want to be just as "progressive" as Washington State, yet they want to be proudly independent and unique at the same time. I disagree that this is a "mostly red state"; at best it is purple. In my opinion, the Republicans out here are about as Republican as the conservative Democrats in Nebraska. I will be voting for Smith in the fall mainly because I have no other real choice (I'm certainly not going to vote for a guy like Merkley). And from what I've seen of Eugene (home of the University of Oregon), they are about as nutty as Berkeley.

Another "unique" part of our state is that all tax increases must be approved by a referendum. To our state's credit, none have been approved since I've been here (late 2000). That is not to say that the Democrats haven't tried to scare people into voting for them. They use the same strategy that Democrats nationally are using for climate change: attempting to scare people into crisis mode, and that the Democrats' plan for rescue is the only solution that will save the day. You should have seen some of the ads for the tax increase proposal they had in 2003. They turned my stomach with their hyperbolic scare-mongering. And yes, our state has suffered national ridicule because SOME school districts (mainly on the liberal west side) have chosen to shave off school days in an effort to save money. They do this for many reasons, not the least of which is that this is one of the many things Democrats "threatened" would happen if their tax increase proposals weren't passed! As usual, the scare tactics focused a lot on "the children", and some Democrats with brains probably figured out that they can't continue to make empty threats indefinitely while their tax proposals continue to get shot down. It was actually quite clever: shaving a couple of days off the school year had a very minimal impact on the actual education of the kids but it earned the teacher's unions a lot more in political leverage. After our D governor got re-elected, guess who he hired as his new chief of staff? That's right, a teacher union bigshot.

I agree, the idea of keeping surplus tax revenue in a "rainy day fund" is pretty funny. When you're a Democrat, when is it NOT a "rainy day"? There's ALWAYS one more reason to spend tax money!

Also, we don't get a kicker check every year. This is the first time I've received a kicker check since 2001.