What Happened to Using the Corporate Kicker to Fund Education?

Remember 11 years ago, when we voted to give the corporate kicker to K-12 education so that there would never be rat-infested saunas in schools—i.e., Measure 85? What happened to this golden goose? Is it possible that there’s a lost pot of money that would solve all the school issues? —Jessie G.

If your kid’s school has a sauna, Jessie, how bad could its budget problems be? Just kidding! We all know Oregon schools aren’t exactly ballin’ these days—I’ll assume that by “sauna” you mean “classroom where the A/C hasn’t worked since 1991.”

As touched on in a previous column, education funding has been a challenge statewide since at least 1990, when Measure 5 dumped responsibility for around 70% of K-12 education funding into our Legislature’s hummus-stained lap. Oregon’s income tax rebate program, aka “the kicker,” only makes things harder.

Since it’s notoriously difficult to get people to vote against getting free money, the personal income tax kicker isn’t going anywhere. It’s not quite as difficult to get people to vote against free money for somebody else, however: Enter 2012′s Measure 85, the Oregon Corporate Tax “Kicker” Funds for Education Initiative.

Saying you’re going to take money from corporations—let’s just go ahead and call them “greedy corporations”—and give it to schoolchildren (many of whom are probably orphans with enormous, Keane-painting eyes) is about the best spin you can put on a tax increase. Measure 85 cruised to a 20-point victory.

Unfortunately, Oregon’s corporate income tax only raises about one-eighth as much revenue as the personal tax. The total corporate kicker clawback—when there is one—is usually something between $50 million and $200 million. Given that the annual K-12 budget is around $5 billion, you can see how Measure 85 isn’t exactly a magic bullet. (There’s also the fact that, strictly speaking, Measure 85 doesn’t actually bind the Legislature to use the money for education; it just goes into the general fund.)

Still, there’s one silver lining for us tax-and-spend liberals: If it weren’t for the kicker, our current $5.6 billion budget surplus might well prompt tea party types to demand permanent tax cuts—ones that, unlike the kicker, would bite in lean years as well as fat ones. Sending out these checks, stupid as it is, seems to mollify the anti-tax zealots. When it comes to bribery, there’s nothing like money.

Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.