SJR 2 Proposes amendment to Oregon Constitution; transfers tax revenues to state school fund for K-12 public education.

05/22/2015
VOTE:NO
Died in Committee

Removes the current law that excess personal income tax revenues should be returned to personal income taxpayers. Refers proposed amendment to voters in next regular general election.

Personal Choice
This money is the taxpayers’ money. If it is not spent by the government, it should continue to be returned to the tax payers.

Fiscal Responsibility
This is an attempt to do away with what’s been called “the kicker”. The reason we need the kicker is because Oregon does not have any effective mechanism in place to control the pro-spending bias that all governments display. If growth in the total spending of the State could be constrained to population growth + inflation, or some similar method, then the kicker mechanism would not be needed.   There is enough money in the proposed budget (without this amendment) to return education funds to the 2003 level if a bi-partisan agreement can be reached.

Limited Government
This disincents government to use tax payer dollars wisely and efficiently