and the gas attendant said it was against the law to pump your own gas in Oregon. Also, I worked there long enough to have state income taxes withheld. Turns out, if the state of Oregon has a budget surplus in a given year, they have to refund the money to the tax payers for that year. I got a check from Oregon about a year after I had filed with my "refund". Imagine that, a state government running a surplus.