Checks are (almost) in the mail…
The largest ever tax refund is now in the works, and will be mailed later this week, according to this KGW newsbrief.
Unbelievably, the mere fact that we were getting money back this year (something I thought had been broadcast far and wide) had escaped the notice of one of my co-workers. He was stunned to hear that the state would be expending mega money to refund more than 1.1 billion dollars, and didn’t realize it’s in our state constitution to send money back to taxpayers when revenues exceed projections by more than 2%.
We can argue until the cows come home (or the checks arrive) just whether or not the system makes sense (I’d like to see some kind of rainy day fund myself) – but I’d rather find out what you plan to do with the money. More fodder for holiday shopping? Will some of it get kicked back to your charity of choice? Will you create your own rainy day fund? Or none of the above?
The kicker check has reached mythic stature in our household. Every time we don’t have enough money to actually buy something and then use our credit card instead, we say oh, we’ll pay that off when we get the kicker check. The kicker check will pay all our bills, triple our savings, buy our xmas presents, walk the dog, make dinner for a week and tuck us in at night.
The kicker is great.
It is our money anyway… the State gets more than enough to run things and still manages to blow it on non-essential services… My kicker won’t be huge but it will help out with bills and paying off a credit card.
“The State gets more than enough to run things” … right. I certainly can’t think of any recent years in which the state was strapped for cash, and say, cut short the school year, leading to national ridicule. Nope, we got all the money we need. This year at least.
Since I think the kicker is stupid, I intend on donating it to some cause that would help people the state won’t be helping in some future lean year. Portland Public Schools, Oregon Food Bank, something like that.
I check the box on the Oregon tax return telling them to donate it to the State School Fund. As a supporter of “tax & spend” policies generally (with respect to social services & public infrastructure, anyway), I figure it’s a way to put my money where my mouth is.
I’m hoping to put a lot of our kicker into our high-interest-earning savings account. And donate some it to my favorite charity…Bradley-Angle House. (It’s the oldest program helping domestic violence survivors on the West Coast, actually.)
Privately funding the “Healthy Kids Initiative,” anyone?