Current statutory law requires the state to estimate General Fund revenues separately from corporate income and excise taxes and from all other sources, including personal income taxes, for each two-year state budget period (also called a biennium). If collections for the biennium from either corporate income and excise taxes or from other General Fund revenue sources exceed their estimates by two percent or more, current statutes require that the surplus over 100% of the estimate, commonly known as the "kicker," be refunded to taxpayers in the form of a direct refund or through a tax credit.
Ballot Measure 86 would establish these "kicker" refunds as constitutional requirements. As under current law, Ballot Measure 86 would require "kicker" refunds to be determined separately for corporate taxpayers and for personal income taxpayers.
Ballot Measure 86 would permit the Legislative Assembly, by a two-thirds majority vote of all members elected to each house, to increase the estimates at any time during the two-year state budget period. The effect of an increase in an estimate would be to reduce or eliminate the "kicker" refunds otherwise due taxpayers under Ballot Measure 86. By contrast, the Oregon Constitution currently permits the Legislative Assembly to modify or eliminate the statutory "kicker" by a three-fifths majority vote of all members elected to each house of the Legislative Assembly.
Ballot Measure 86 would permit the Legislative Assembly to determine the means by which "kicker" refunds are returned to taxpayers, to deduct administrative costs from refunds, to withold refunds of very small ("de minimis") amounts and to offset a taxpayer's refund against outstanding liabilities owed by the taxpayer to the state.
Ballot Measure 86 would apply to biennia beginning
on or after July 1, 2001.
| Committee Members:
Senator Bill Fisher Representative Tim Knopp Senator Neil Bryant Representative Ken Strobeck Jerry Hudson |
Appointed By:
President of the Senate Speaker of the House Secretary of State Secretary of State Members of the Committee |
(This committee was appointed to provide an impartial explanation of the ballot measure pursuant to ORS 251.215.)