Our Campaign’s Vision: The People Come First

We have plenty of money to pay teachers a fair wage, build housing, set up social services of every type—and still have money left for a rainy day.

If... we stop giving away huge riches to the wealthiest people in the state. That's what the current "kicker" does.

I have opposed the structure of the "kicker" for a long time. It's even more obvious in 2024—$5.6 billion will be turned back in tax rebates, with the vast majority going to the richest one percent. According to the Oregon Center For Public Policy, "The average member of the top 1 percent, who averages more than a million dollars in a single year, is forecast to get $44,600 under the current kicker law. Some ultra-rich people are expected to receive kicker rebates well in excess of $800,000."

That's crazy.

So, I strongly support, and will campaign if elected to office, reforming the kicker and, specifically, to adopt the OCPP's "Working Families Kicker": "Under the current kicker, the typical Oregonian – the Oregonian in the middle – would get an estimated $980. But under the Working Families Kicker, that same Oregonian would receive about $2,100. For the lowest-income Oregonians, their kicker would rise from an estimated average of $70 to $2,100. This is an amount that can make a meaningful difference in a family’s life, such as catching up on the rent or bills."

This better policy would mean, per OCPP, "the top 20 percent would go from receiving an estimated 67 percent of the kicker to a rational 20 percent. The lowest earning 80 percent of Oregonians would shift from sharing 33 percent of the kicker to 80 percent of the kicker."

And we'd have the money we need to make our city, and the state, a model of smart economic policy where the wealthy pay a fair share.