From a dry fiscal process comes an inspired way to help the community to the tune of up to $12 million.
“Kick in for the community,” a new multi-agency giving appeal, deserves support.

Providence Health Services Foundation is coordinating “Kick in” to encourage “kicker” check recipients to donate all or part of their forthcoming payments to local service organizations.

Statewide, middle-earner taxpayers will receive a check totaling somewhere between $275-300. The kicker money comes from non-corporate general fund revenue sources. These include personal income tax, insurance tax, inheritance tax, tobacco tax, and other non-tax revenue sources. (When there is at least a 2 percent difference between the final revenue forecast for the biennium and the actual end of the biennium revenue, the surplus must by law be returned to individual income taxpayers.) The personal income tax is by far the largest contributor, according to the state Department of Revenue. Just over $1 billion is being returned to taxpayers (checks in the mail sometime around Dec. 15) and an estimated $12 million will go to Hood River County residents.

The foundation’s “Kick in” idea is modeled after similar efforts in other communities, and needs are great here in the Gorge, as well. Foundation Assistant Jamie Guth said the idea came up at a recent fund-raising seminar.

“We began thinking that this is a really great way to better the whole area,” she said.

Providence approached local organizations about sharing an advertisement in this newspaper urging residents to select a group to give part of their kicker payment to. The foundation is essentially acting as a clearinghouse for the idea, but it needs stressing that they are not coordinating the actual giving — or receiving. It is up to each giver to “kick in” directly to the nonprofit of their choosing.

The foundation took on the project after it realized it had the ability, the personnel, and the network already set up, according to Guth.

“We wanted to bring everyone in and have it be a collaborative effort among all the nonprofits. We felt we had the time and energy to be put into it.”

The ad itself will run on Dec. 9 and Dec. 16, but it is itself only a guide; it indicates specific groups that are asking for a “kick start,” but also reminds us of the breadth of organizations worthy of consideration.

Of course, how to use the kicker payment is up to each taxpayer. Many families justifiably will want to pay off bills, use it for holiday expenses, invest it, or save it.

For the many families for whom times are already tight, the concept of tithing, one’s spiritual orientation aside, could be applied: take 10 percent of your kicker check and donate it to a nonprofit. That way, everyone can feel they played a part in a larger attempt to return some of the kicker refund to the greater community.