ODOT faces layoffs, massive cuts after Oregon transportation bill fails
By Ward Jolles for KPTV
SALEM Ore. (KPTV) - After the Oregon Legislature ended its session Friday without passing a major transportation bill, the Oregon Department of Transportation said it will begin the process to lay off workers next week.
House Bill 2025, a $12 billion spending bill pushed by Democrats, would have included significant increases on both the state gas tax and registration fees to pay for infrastructure projects, maintenance, and public transit.
When it was clear HB 2025 didn’t have the votes, legislators proposed a scaled-down version in House Bill 3402. But that bill also failed to pass over concerns that the money raised by the new taxes would go to ODOT and not to cities.
On Saturday, Governor Tina Kotek addressed the bill failure and the multi-million-dollar budget shortfall ODOT now faces.
“There was a lot of hard work to get it to a comprehensive transportation package, and legislators at the end of the day could not get that over the finish line,” Kotek said.
Kotek said hundreds of ODOT jobs could soon be cut to make up for the lost money.
“Next week, because of the nature of not having the resources that we need, we will have to initiate layoff notices at the Oregon Department of Transportation. So while it was a long day yesterday, I’m sitting down with my team today, we’re gonna huddle, we’re gonna figure out what we do next. I’m gonna work on this, and legislators will be hearing from me,” Kotek said.
Kotek partially blamed the failed bills on Republicans’ unwillingness to work across party lines, despite Democrats holding a supermajority in both chambers of the state legislature.
Meanwhile, Republicans celebrated the transportation bill’s failure, calling it one of the “largest tax hikes in Oregon state history.”
In a statement, House Republican Leader Christine Drazan said, “House Republicans have relentlessly focused on addressing the needs of everyday Oregonians and their families who are overwhelmed by the cost of living and frustrated by never-ending tax hikes. Forcing families to pay one of the largest tax hikes in history when they can barely get by was a cruel policy from the start.”
ODOT sent FOX 12 a statement on Sunday:
“For many years, ODOT has informed the Oregon Legislature that a structural revenue issue driven by flattening and declining gas tax revenue, inflation, and statutory restrictions on available funding would eventually force the agency to dramatically reduce its staffing and maintenance service levels if no intervention came forward. For the last three biennia, ODOT has taken progressively larger voluntary cuts to stay within budget.
“Since last summer, ODOT has broadly shared that if the legislature did not address this shortfall during this legislative session, deeper cuts would have to start in the 2025-27 biennium.
“On Friday night, the legislature ended the session without passing a transportation package providing ODOT with either new funding, funding flexibility, or even an interim investment to stabilize services for the immediate upcoming biennium. As a result, ODOT will have to make deep and painful cuts starting in the next few weeks.
“ODOT cannot use federal funding for maintenance. State law prevents the agency from using project or transit money to pay for maintenance or agency operations. ODOT has taken voluntary reductions over the past six years, and no further reductions are available that won’t have consequences for Oregonians. The only way to balance the budget and live within available funding is to make deep and severe cuts. These cuts will harm Oregon’s transportation system, Oregon’s travelers, and the operational health of the agency.
“Next week, ODOT will begin the layoff process. By the end of July, hundreds of positions will no longer be at ODOT. The agency is using vacancy savings wherever possible in order to minimize the number of layoffs but will still lose hundreds of current hard-working employees.
“ODOT cannot solve this structural revenue issue on its own and it won’t fix itself. Each year that passes, the vehicle fleet grows more efficient and uses less gas per mile driven. And with each year, the cost of doing business gets a little higher with inflation, while revenue sources stay flat. The only way out of this problem is for the legislature to dedicate additional funding to maintenance and agency operations or provide greater flexibility in how funds are spent.
“Oregon’s travelers will soon experience a less reliable transportation system. ODOT staff dedicated their professional lives to this agency and to supporting the traveling public. We will continue to do the best we can, with the resources we have, to keep Oregonians safe.”
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