With help from Oregon AFSCME and its members, an initiative to reform the corporate "kicker" law in Oregon is headed to the ballot this fall. Initiative supporters turned in over 200,000 signatures, almost twice as many as needed to qualify.

 

Council 75 was a sponsor of the measure, along with a long list of other organizations, and Oregon AFSCME members helped collect signatures. The initiative will reform the corporate kicker by designating those funds into Oregon K-12 schools, rather than sending it to large, out-of-state corporations. As much as 80 percent of the corporate kicker money goes to corporations that are headquartered outside of Oregon.

 

In turn, by having that money designated to schools, it should help free up some General Fund money for other state agencies dependent on the General Fund, such as the Department of Corrections, for one, where AFSCME represents over 3,000 workers.

 

"Thank you to all the many volunteers who helped us get here!" said Patrick Green, the Executive Director of Our Oregon, which spearheaded the campaign. "But as we move toward the November election, we'll need your help again to talk to your friends and neighbors about the need to fund our schools."

Green said Oregonians from around the state signed on to support the initiative because they've seen the daily impact of the school-funding crisis. Students are crammed into overcrowded classrooms, thousands of teachers have been laid off and schools are closing. At the same time, the state is losing billions of dollars to tax breaks, many to out-of-state corporations.

"Across the state, parents know that we've got to get serious about putting money into our schools," says the Oregon PTA's Otto Schell. "This is the first step toward prioritizing our students and schools, and giving them the support they deserve."

This measure does not change the personal kicker law, which returns money to individual taxpayers.

 

In addition to AFSCME, the corporate kicker measure is supported by a broad coalition that includes the Oregon PTA, the Oregon Education Association, Basic Rights Oregon, Partnership for Safety and Justice, Tax Fairness Oregon, Alliance for Democracy, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon and others.

 

Once the Secretary of State's office verifies that enough signatures are valid, which should not be a problem in this case, the initiative will be assigned a ballot measure number for this fall's Nov. 6 Oregon General Election. As a constitutional measure, it needs 116,284 valid signatures to make the ballot. There could be as many as eight other statewide measures on the ballot this year.