For those of you who don't live in Oregon, let me explain what the kicker is. Basically, a little magical elf sits in Salem and uses his or her mystical powers to travel through time, battling the forces of darkness and, while s/he is there, seeing what the budget is going to be like in the future. But sometimes, the forces of darkness obscure the elf's view, and thus the state's budget is less than what the state collects in revenues. This seems to happen almost every time, in fact. It must be because the elf usually has a few degrees in economics rather than evil-fighting (though I've heard that there are large areas of overlap). When this happens, the state feels guilty, and sends out refunds to people and corporations who paid taxes. Thus, every year around this time, people get a magical gift in their mailbox - the kicker check. And this year, the total amount of money being given back to the people is a staggering 1.1 billion dollars.

Now, let's be clear. I like the idea of everybody sharing 1.1 billion dollars. I mean, it's not equal, of course. It's all relative to how much you paid in taxes. But still, that's a lot of money being thrown back. But you have to wonder just what that money could have done. Over at BlueOregon they're mentioning a quote pulled from the Oregonian by Juan Carlos Ordonez from the Oregon Center for Public Policy.

A billion dollars is a lot of money -- and a lot of lost opportunity. This year's kicker, for example, would cover four years of tuition and fees for about 45,000 Oregonians at one of Oregon's public universities. About 8,000 Oregon high school graduates enter Oregon colleges each year. A billion dollars could have funded full college rides for all Oregon high school graduates entering the next five freshman classes.

Ouch. A full ride to a public institution for every student for the next 5 years. It could also get us 5.5 days in Iraq, or less, depending on what number you're looking at.

If you're thinking that the kicker is going to be great because it gives a lot of people money, you might want to consider just who is getting most of the money. Since it's based on how much taxes somebody pays, the richest are going to get the most back. What does that actually mean? From the OCPP:

The wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers, those with incomes over about $360,000 and averaging about $862,000, will receive slightly more than 22 percent of the total amount refunded. Their average kicker will be $13,548, about 45 times the amount that the typical taxpayer will receive.

But wait, it gets even better. "The poorest 20 percent of taxpayers will receive less than 1 percent of the total kicker amount, with an average refund of just $28."

Again, this all makes sense, but I still walk away thinking there has got to be a better system.