As if Oregon's budget woes weren't bad enough...

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2004/04/29/d3.cr.kicker2.0429.html

SALEM - The state's ``kicker" income tax refund in 2001 was $113 million too low because it was wrongly calculated, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.

Kevin Neely, a spokesman for Attorney General Hardy Myers, said the state likely will appeal to the Supreme Court.

If that appeal fails, however, the state will probably refund the money to taxpayers, Neely said.

Anti-tax activist Bill Sizemore and state Republican Party officials filed the lawsuit after legislators moved $113 million in Medicaid money out of the general fund and into a special health account that is sheltered from the kicker refund. The court ruled against that practice.

<snip>

Sizemore celebrated the victory Wednesday. He said the court's decision shows the lawmakers' tactics amounted to ``sleight of hand.''

``The court said the Legislature stole nearly a third of the people's kicker refund by means of a tricky but illegal accounting maneuver,'' he said.

end excerpt.

If anybody would know about "tricky but illegal accounting maneuvers", it would be Sizemore.