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State Rep. Vicki Berger, R-Salem, said she has no desire to see out-of-state companies get money from the state’s corporate kicker.

Nonetheless, contrary to Measure 85, she does not want the money to go to public schools. Kicker money is available only when the state receives more money than estimated by economists two years earlier, she pointed out.

鈥淲hat good is an intermittent source of money every few years?鈥� she said. 鈥淚f this money were going to the rainy-day fund, I would be overjoyed,鈥� she added.

Scott Moore, communications director for Our Oregon, the primary force behind the measure, scoffed at Berger’s comments.

鈥淚 love that,鈥� he said sarcastically. 鈥淚t’s intermittent and unreliable, so let’s put it in something important like the rainy-day fund.鈥�

Few people like the kicker as it stands.

Efforts to reform the kicker program have gained widespread bipartisan support in the Legislature and beyond. However, many legislators would prefer to reform the kicker themselves. Moore said they had many chances and muffed them.

鈥淚t’s time for Oregonians to step up and give the money to public schools,鈥� he said.

Oregon voters passed kicker law in 1980 and voted to make it part of the state constitution in 2000. Oregonians received kicker money for the first time in 1985. They received tax refunds again two years later. They were going to get refunds in 1991 and 1993, but legislators withheld the money to deal with financial crises stemming from voter-approved property tax limitations.

The kicker resurfaced in 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2007. In 2007, the median refund for an individual taxpayer was $113, according to the Oregon Center for Public Policy. That same year, the center reports, 4 percent of the corporations that received refunds received 93 percent of the corporate kicker 鈥� with 84 percent of the corporations coming from other states.

The corporate kicker has ranged from $18 million to $325 million.

鈥淚t’s basically an accounting blip for these corporations,鈥� Moore said.

Because the kicker is an unreliable source of revenue, Berger said, schools can’t do much with it either. Moore actually agrees.

鈥淭his isn’t the solution to Oregon’s school funding crisis,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut it sends a good signal.鈥�

Our Oregon needed 116,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot; petitioners collected more than 250,000. Moore said that’s probably more than for any other ballot measure.

Our Oregon has since gathered a base of support. A rally at Grant Park in September drew 300 people.

Nonetheless, Berger said she would be disappointed if the measure were to pass. The kicker, both corporate and personal, needs to be reformed, she said.

鈥淭his is going to take any chance for real reform off the table,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he measure only further destabilizes our already destabilized public finances.鈥�