Sources tell BikePortland that Oregon Governor Tina Kotek will announce details of a special legislative session sometime this week as fallout from the legislature’s failure to pass transportation funding continues to pile up. That tip comes as no surprise, given the acuity of the crisis and the pressure the governor is under to do something about the mass layoffs that have already begun at the Oregon Department of Transportation.
“They are hearing legislators don’t believe the layoffs are real.”
– Email from ODOT worker union
One major pressure point for Kotek is labor unions, who launched a lobbying campaign over the weekend that encourages members to email their state representatives and attach a photo of their layoff notice, “so legislators can hear directly how all of our lives are being negatively impacted by their lack of action.”
Over the weekend, an ODOT employee forwarded an email to BikePortland from the Association of Engineering Employees of Oregon (AEE), a union that represents over 1,000 workers across several state agencies. AEE has teamed up with the local SEIU 503 union for several meetings with the State of Oregon over the past two weeks.
In an email from AEE to their members on Saturday (July 12), they said SEIU, “are hearing legislators don’t believe the layoffs are real at ODOT.” SEIU has a tool on their website where laid off employees can record a video that will be sent directly to their representative.
AEE and SEIU report some success at negotiating better terms for impacted workers, but the layoffs have not been stopped.
According to data reported by Willamette Week on Sunday, hundreds of workers have already received layoff notices. 88 ODOT employees from Region 1 are part of the job cuts, with a majority of them from Multnomah County.
Preserving jobs will be the top priority for Kotek when she brings lawmakers back to Salem. While she might get all Democrats on board with scaled-down legislation that raises revenue from a mix of fuel taxes and other fees, it still looks unlikely that Republicans will do anything to help.
House Republican Leader Christine Drazan (a former gubernatorial candidate who lost to Kotek in 2022) told KOIN News last week that blame for the layoffs falls squarely on Kotek and Democrats. Drazan said a Republican-backed bill should have been passed instead, but that bill was a political non-starter from the get-go and never had enough support to pass.
Kotek will need line up not just enough political support for any new package in a special session, she’ll need to line up a procedural path that thwarts all the obstruction Republicans are likely to throw at it.
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Seems like there’d be enough money for maintenance and stuff if ODOT dialed back or cancelled one or more megaprojects?
No, unfortunately not true. Funding for ODOT’s STIP projects comes largely from federal allotments. Funding for maintenance and operations is entirely from the state.
This is largely accurate except for the Rose Quarter. RQ is funded at this point entirely (or at least majority) by state dollars that ODOT claims can’t be moved off the project bc of HB 2017. I don’t think this is true but can’t 100% verify. The state money put towards it last year (to the tune of ~100M) was supposed to be the match to a federal grant that ODOT did not get but the OTC decided to keep it on RQ anyway.
I don’t think that’s entirely true, but it is what ODOT would like you to believe: https://cityobservatory.org/the-oregon-department-of-transportation-crashes-into-a-financial-brick-wall/
for example the Abernathy bridge: https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/the-story/abernethy-bridge-delayed-72-million-cost/283-faf8eb61-6b71-4190-8a86-d45f6cdce83c
and how they’re always “out of money”: https://cityobservatory.org/oregon-dot-the-master-of-three-card-monte/
Thats not how funding works. There’s laws that control where and how money is allocated. Cant take from one project to fund another. Cant take project money to fund operations. This exists for a reason.
ODOT routinely moves money among projects. For example, it had no money to start the I-205 Abernethy Bridge, it cobbled together a combination of project savings, “unanticipated revenue,” and diverted maintenance money to come up with $50 million to launch the project, promising it would pay for the project itself from toll revenues. The project went from $248 million to $815 million, the toll revenue disappeared, and ODOT diverted money and borrowed money against future state revenues (which directly reduces the amount available for road maintenance in future years). Links to all the receipts at City Observatory, starting with : https://cityobservatory.org/the-oregon-department-of-transportation-crashes-into-a-financial-brick-wall/
And all of that construction was supposed to benefit Mark Meek’s district – and he still voted against ODOT! Amazing.
Yes, it makes it so when there is a fiscal issue, the only solution is more capital, not using the funds you have to run the core mission of the department. Pretty sure the willingness to just take this smoke and mirrors policy on the chin is getting old for most people.
Would cancelling expensive projects that the state can’t really afford help at all? Or does it simply boil down to raising more taxes?
No, it doesn’t work that way.
If Kotek and the Dems stand up and effectively say “We’ll do anything to save these ODOT jobs,” then they will hand a major victory to Repubs.
Remember that the bill Repubs put forward was to fund just the movement of cars and trucks, and nothing else (nothing for transit riders, cyclists, peds, kids, old people, disabled etc). Funding ODOT – and nothing else – just to save these jobs means Repubs effectively get what they want.
It’s a really tough spot Dems find themselves in, since Drazan has already accused ODOT of running a bloated operation. She says: Cut the fluff – meaning anything other than car-and-truck infra – and you’ll have plenty of $$ and be able to save those jobs.
So Dems need to hang tough here and follow a scorched-earth policy: Repubs get NOTHING til they come to the table and negotiate on Dems’ priorities as well. We will ALL suffer together until things get so bad that voters throw out the legislators who are unable to get stuff done.
So it’s purely an “us versus them” situation? Any result that is for the good of the party is a win for everyone? Actual results be damned?
To me, it doesn’t look like us vs. them, it looks like a group of people that are trying to run the government and are having problems vs. a group that has decided their only way forward is to sabotage the government and win off of votes from discontent that the government “doesn’t work.”
The only us vs. them- is the dems that aren’t sell outs or dinosaurs, vs the dems that are.
It’s worth noting that all the megaprojects were proposed and approved by the Democrats, with or without Republican support. Even when I lived in Oregon 10 years ago there seemed to be two kinds of elected Oregon Democrats: Liberal and Conservative (there were also a few liberal Republicans but they seem to have disappeared), so this kind of political brinkmanship I find is less than funny after a while.
If the Democrats had proposed and approved a $7 billion statewide passenger rail and subway system with accompanying sidewalk and bike improvements, I could understand the Democrats position on this – but they didn’t, not even close – just lots of unneeded highway widenings and 20-lane bridges, just like Republicans in other states are always proposing, so I kinda view this deadlocked state legislature and a defunded ODOT as the best possible outcome for Oregon’s current convoluted political climate.
“So Dems need to hang tough here and follow a scorched-earth policy”
Or, maybe, Democrats just need to get their act together and figure out what they want.
Republicans aren’t the problem, though maybe the idea that because Democrats have a supermajority they can go it alone is.
The republican plan was strictly cuts. Thats it. Very little about generating revenue. There was even a tax cut for truckers. Thats how they operate. Drazan says to cut the fluff, but there was no fluff left to cut. 900 positions went unfilled for several years. These layoffs are not trimming the fat or cutting the fluff, its removing appendages, leaving gaping flesh wounds.
That’s a great point, but Drazan and the Repubs really do see anything other than cars and trucks as fluff and don’t think it should be funded. If they were in charge, we’d have no bike lanes, sidewalks, MUPs, or transit (trains, buses etc).
It’s a line very similar to the Tr^mp one: cut your “woke” DEI programs and you’ll have plenty of money for everything (not true but satisfying to their base).
I’d be willing to bet that they would understand being beholden to a voter bloc to keep them in power. The transportation lobby could be that the voting bloc. Right now the D’s are doing their level best to build as many roads through and near Portland as they can and they are not caring what the activists say.
After all, a republican governor signed the ’71 bike bill.
Yes, it’s called “anchoring” in negotiating 101, and instead of participating in the negotiation dems said, “we can go it on our own”. Now, as is typical, they are on their own and don’t like the consequences along with the limited options for a path forward, so they lean in on holding taxpayers hostage thinking that will work. It might, but the last few weeks doesn’t make it look promising.
ODOT could cancel one of their underfunded highway expansion projects and keep the workers on. They are choosing not to. They are using the employees as hostages in a gambit to get money out of the Legislature to fund their highway building. As economist Joe Cortright wrote on his blog City Observatory last week:
“In the face of failing to get legislative funding for these mega-projects, ODOT has said nothing about cancelling, postponing or shrinking them, and instead, claimed that it has no choice but to lay off its workers.”
Last I saw that was the position of Governor Kotek as well, not just ODOT.
To assume that ODOT is some rogue agency going against the wishes of the legislature and executive branch is naive.
ODOT could cancel any of the mega projects if they were instructed to. However, the silence is deafening.
Yeah, ODOT claimed these projects would cost a third or a quarter of what they’ll actually cost, and then the legislature bought off on them. And ODOT is saying “well, they ordered the $2 donut – we gotta deliver it even though it’s actually $10.”
ODOT is habitually bad at megaproject cost estimation, and it’s not just construction inflation – it’s just they lowball stuff and lobby for some funds then start building it and you have to continue, Robert Moses-like. It’s not just the projects in HB 2017 they’ve screwed up.
If ODOT was held accountable for more accurate cost estimation, the legislature might not buy off on all these projects. But they’re not.
It’s a cycle of wishful thinking – the legislature and ODOT are both responsible for the failures, and it’s time to stop digging (continuing building these projects we can’t afford) when we’re in the hole we’re in.
Now that the legislature knows the new price (for now), they can un-buy off on these projects at any time. Everyone loves to blame ODOT rather than the people they themselves put into power, but the real problem is the legislature. They, and they alone, have the power to fix this problem.
Jake9- I agree! The failure of Oregon Dems to pass this transportation funding has shone a very bright light on fiscal irresponsibility and climate denialism of the Oregon Democrats. I voted for them and I am beyond frustrated with them- Kotek especially.
The climate gaslighting and diversion of necessary funds into road projects that actively harm the environment during the construction, maintenance and from the ice engines that will increasingly use them is for me the worst part.
The climate crisis has been here for a few years. I despise the politicians who use the issue as a fundraiser. Promising the citizens that if they only donate to their cause or support this tax then they will be doing their part to hold back what is already here.
Oregon democrats ask for green money with one hand while the other works with the Rs to fund environment shattering mega projects that no one seems to want, yet everyone seems okay with.
Instead of a bird, slap a light train on it. Or even better, put a cycle lane on the edge and it will be all good.
What could all this money instead go to? And for those who claim that the feds earmark the money for specific uses I will only say that the matching funds Oregon raises to qualify to pave over what’s left of paradise can be used for anything.
That money needs to go to crisis mediation in the form of native trees and shrubbery (a lot of it) on rooftops, vacant lots, wherever they can go to produce a cooling canopy. Also, it’s time to start building neighborhood wells for when Portland is cut off from Bull Run. Victory gardens would be another great start. Empty city lot? Individual gardens. Vacant building? Tear it down for individual gardens.
Create legal moratoriums on data centers, crypto mining and AI centers that abuse the grid and pollute the rivers with hot water.
Plenty of things for matching funds money to go to rather than roads.
I’m sure you all have your ideas for where that money could go and I’m also sure it’s not bigger interchanges.
The unions are most likely going to present a hurdle when it comes to regaining employment. The firings are based on seniority. If funding allows open positions to be filled at some point, the union will most likely look at seniority to fill them. There are alot of very specialized jobs lost, that maybe only one or two highly skilled, specialized people filled. Those people might not get their job back because they have lower seniority, most likely leaving the position unfilled because there isn’t someone with seniority that meets the requirements. I hope thats not the case, but its looking that way.
I haven’t looked at ODOT’s union contracts but most contracts specify that seniority applies *within* job specialities. So if ODOT says it needs to lay off electricians, a senior electrician doesn’t get to keep his job since he’s senior to, say, an admin.
Also most contracts have call-back (rehiring) language that specifies who has to be rehired in the event positions are re-opened. It keeps an employer from skirting “firing for cause” requirements.
In summary I predict your fears about union “hurdles” are overblown. Most union contracts are good for workers AND employers, which is why both agree to them.
I’m not sure that unions make decisions about who gets hired.
Agreed, they really don’t.
I don’t know . . .
One time I had a job offer. They were going to start me at the lowest, and I said “no, I have 20 years experience I expect to be paid much more”
I was told, “we’ll have to ask the union if that’s ok”
Right then I decided I was no longer interested if the Union had say over how much my starting salary was to be. Fine that the union negotiates a salary range but they shouldn’t have any say where I was to land in it.
Yeah, union has input on wages, but they don’t pull the trigger on who gets an offer letter.
Inside the Agency the mood is somber. Working stiffs far removed from the decisions of leadership and even farther removed from the halls of government have had their lives turned upside down.
483 persons lost their jobs in the first wave of firings. Another 600 are reportedly going to get pink slips. The depth of the harm resulting from this cluster f___ is reverberating into cities and rural communities.
The legislators will be replaced but go back to their previous lives and suffer no consequences. ODOT leadership, who drove this bus into the ditch will (hopefully) be let go. They will endure loss of face, but be cushioned by golden parachutes to land softly into quite comfortable lives.
The people who trusted the government to do its job are the ones who are hurt.
If Kris Strickler is still director of ODOT in 6 months, Kotek is totally lost.
I wish we could hold Kotek and Dem leaders responsible for this debacle, but you can’t vote for a sane Repub alternative b/c there isn’t one – not in Oregon and not anywhere else.
I’ve thought about your comment for awhile and still don’t know what, if anything to say. It doesn’t sound like it’s a very pleasant way to be though.
Thank you, sir, may I have another?