Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek supports using $1B ‘kicker' tax returns for wildfire costs
Gov. Tina Kotek has thrown her support for using Oregon's 'kicker' tax refund to infuse $1 billion into fighting wildfires.
Lawmakers have struggled for years to come up with a new stream of revenue to pay for fighting the growing number of wildfires that burn each summer.
In 2024, the Oregon Legislature held a special session to approve $218 million to cover unpaid wildfire bills from the record-breaking season.
At a news conference May 19, Kotek opened the possibility of withholding a large part of next year's $1.65 billion 'kicker' to help cover wildfire costs in future years.
'I do think this conversation — on a one-time basis — of supporting rural Oregon by potentially using a portion of the kicker tax break would be a beneficial approach," she said. "I think that's the right conversation to be having, and I would urge legislators to continue with that.'
Kotek later clarified, through a spokesperson, she only supported holding back the piece of the kicker that would go to 'high income earners.'
The kicker is a quirky part of Oregon tax law. It is triggered when income taxes in a two-year budget cycle come in at least 2% higher than lawmakers projected when setting the budget. In those cases, the extra money is given back to taxpayers.
Lawmakers have generally been loath to use it for anything other than sending it to taxpayers, but in the absence of other options, it appears to have started gaining support in the Oregon Legislature.
Kotek's statement was a de-facto endorsement of a bill — Senate Bill 1177 — authored by state Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, that would use 'surplus revenues (the kicker) for wildfire funding.'
Golden told KGW how the bill would work.
"My number one priority is passing a bill to redirect the income tax kicker one time — it only happens once — into a permanent wildfire trust fund, where you never spend the principal. You only spend the interest earnings," Golden said. "Using rough estimates and figures that would provide us every biennium ... about $165 million, which is about half of what we need for wildfire.
"If we do it this one time that will keep generating that fund, we'll keep generating that interest 'til long after I'm gone."
Oregon Republicans, however, balked at the idea.
"Republicans do not support taking the kicker for this purpose," House Republican Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, said in a statement. "Oregonians are struggling under the weight of the cost of living in this state. And the kicker absolutely supports them, absolutely helps them. And there are a lot of ways to fund wildfires in Oregon."
To use the kicker for wildfire costs, lawmakers would need a two-thirds majority vote.
Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 18 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on X at @ZachsORoutdoors and BlueSky at oregonoutdoors.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon kicker tax return could cover wildfire costs under bill
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Politico
13 minutes ago
- Politico
Kweisi Mfume is pitching an old-school approach to one of House Democrats' highest-profile jobs
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That style stands in sharp contrast to a Democratic base that's itching for more aggressive leadership and a more visible fight with Trump — something the other candidates are clearly heeding: Garcia has tangled with the Justice Department over his criticism of Elon Musk; Crockett has broached the prospect of a Trump impeachment inquiry; and Lynch, as the panel's interim top Democrat, attempted last week to subpoena Musk during a panel hearing. The race also threatens to become a proxy fight for broader questions about age and seniority inside the Democratic Party. House Democrats ousted several aging committee leaders at the end of last Congress as they girded for a fight with the Trump administration — and many in the base were disappointed when Connolly triumphed over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. 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Ascending to that role just as Bill Clinton was elected to the presidency, he became an important power broker, forcing key concessions in Clinton's 1993 budget and pushing the White House to restore ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. He also clashed with Clinton at times, including over his decision to pull the nomination of prominent Black legal scholar Lani Guinier to a top Justice Department post. But after Democrats lost their House majority in 1994 — and Mfume lost a quixotic bid to enter the party leadership — he decided two years later to forgo a long climb up the seniority ladder. He instead took the helm at the Baltimore-based NAACP, a job thought to better harness his skills at organizing and oratory. Former Maryland state Sen. Jill Carter said Mfume has long had the 'it factor' and 'charisma' that matters in politics. When Carter ran against Mfume in his 2020 House comeback bid, she got a reminder of how well her rival was known in the district and beyond: 'When some of my people did exit polling, they got the response, 'Oh, we love Jill but, come on, this is Kweisi.'' What's less clear is whether Mfume's reputation in Baltimore, burnished over 45 years in the public eye, makes him the man for the moment as far as his contemporary House colleagues are concerned. He's not known as a partisan brawler, and he said in the interview he doesn't intend to become one. 'There are always going to be fights and disagreements,' he said. 'It's kind of escalated in the last few years to a level that we haven't seen before. I think the main thing is to moderate and to manage the disagreements, because you're not going to cause any of them to go away. How you manage them and how they are perceived by the overall public is what makes a difference.' Mfume is leaning heavily, in fact, on the style and reputation of the man who filled the 7th District seat for the 24 years in between his House stints — the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, who served as top Democrat and then chair of Oversight during Trump's first term and is still spoken of in reverent terms inside the caucus. Mfume concedes that Cummings might have been the better communicator — he 'had a little more preacher in him than I do' — but said they share a similar lofty approach to politics. Like Cummings, he suggested prescription drug prices might be a committee priority. What Mfume is unlikely to have is the official support of the Congressional Black Caucus, a powerful force in intracaucus politics. With two members in the race — Crockett also belongs — Mfume said he does not expect a formal CBC endorsement after an interview process Wednesday. But he still expected to draw support from the bloc — especially its more senior members. 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Much of the Democratic Caucus remains undecided ahead of the June 24 secret-ballot vote. Candidates will first go before Democrats' Steering and Policy Committee, which will make a recommendation to the full caucus. 'I think that you have a situation where Mfume and Steve Lynch are getting support from folks who put seniority at top, and maybe the other two candidates would probably lean toward members who are newer, and then you got a whole host of folks that's in the middle. And I think that's where the battle is to see where they fall,' said Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.). One younger member said he was swayed by Mfume's experience. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is 48 and had weighed his own bid, said that while other candidates were compelling, the Baltimorean had a 'leg up.' 'Kweisi shows me pictures of him with Nelson Mandela,' he said. 'I was like, I'm not going to run against Nelson Mandela's best friend.'
New York Times
13 minutes ago
- New York Times
Texas Governor Will Deploy National Guard to Immigration Protests
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