I take exception to Juan Carlos Ordóñez guest column in Lookout arguing that Oregon can’t afford tax rebates for the rich.

The kicker rebate was instituted to act like a car governor and control the legislative spending of taxpayer money. When Oregon tax revenue is larger than projected, the excess is sent back to the payees via the kicker. The kicker, a return of excess collections, is not comparable to a lavish gift to a rich cousin. The less well-off are not sending their money to the more fortunate. The large size of the “rich people’s” kicker rebate is a very simple fact: Oregon collected a lot of taxes from the rich. The rich supply the bulk of the tax revenue. The kicker is a repayment of their respective excess.

Keeping the rebate for someone else — the Oregon Legislature — to spend is not fair by any stretch of the imagination. I agree that Oregon and other entities are suffering due to actions by Congress. But these actions are really nothing more than Congress requiring everyone to share the pain of the reduction in federal spending. We have become way too dependent on the federal government borrowing money and sending it everywhere. Now the cutbacks have begun.

In 2012, Oregon eliminated the kicker for corporations, sending that money instead to supplement and stabilize public school K-12 budgets. That is a topic that can be debated later. As to controlling the timing of the kicker, maybe Oregon’s budget should be changed to force the state to spend all of the tax revenue that was collected in the prior year or two. Then there would be no need for the projections the state bases the size of the kicker off of.

I am tired of the class envy.

Rick Leipzig
Portland