Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has called a special session of the legislature to pass transportation funding legislation. In a statement released today, Kotek said the session will begin August 29th and lawmakers will work, “to pay for basic road maintenance and operations at ODOT, as well as address funding needs for local governments and transit districts.”
Along with the special session announcement, ODOT Director Kris Strickler told members of an employee union today that the effective date for layoffs has been pushed from July 31st to September 15th. Strickler received a letter from Governor Kotek on Monday stating that she’d been assured by legislative leaders that they’d fund the extension. “The commitment from legislative leaders to provide resources for this postponement should be taken for what it is,” Kotek wrote to Strickler. “A thin, timebound safety net to make sure that additional costs generated through the delay will not lead to deeper cuts in the second wave of reductions.”
The employment extension increases pressure on lawmakers to pass a funding package. In an email to staff sent today by Director Strickler, he wrote, “I’m heartened to see that a safety net has been proposed,” but added that, “a postponement will require the agency to incur additional costs for which we don’t have funds to cover.”
Today’s news means pending layoffs are halted and ODOT can maintain operation of 12 maintenance facilities that were prepping for closure.
The Governor gave only a few hints at what the new funding package will include. Rumors have swirled that it would be a basic six-cent gas tax increase aimed at staving off job cuts at ODOT and giving cities and counties a minimum handout from the State Highway Fund. But Kotek seems to have crafted a package that goes beyond that. The statement from her office released today says, “Her goal is to forestall immediate impacts to transit service through increasing the amount of funding available to the Statewide Transportation Improvement Fund (STIF).”
In addition to what sounds like an increase to the payroll tax that funds the STIF, the statement also said Kotek wants the package to include, “provisions related to ratepayer fairness, funding reliability, and agency accountability.”
Given how the regular session ended, it will be interesting to see how Kotek and Democratic leaders pull this off. The one thing that’s changed since sine die is the ratcheting-up of pressure on lawmakers from voters in their districts to save ODOT jobs and preserve basic road safety.
Whether that’s enough to overcome a deeply polarized legislature remains to be seen.
Thanks for reading.
BikePortland has served this community with independent community journalism since 2005. We rely on subscriptions from readers like you to survive. Your financial support is vital in keeping this valuable resource alive and well.
Please subscribe today to strengthen and expand our work.
That means nothing for peds, cyclists, or the disabled outside of buses.
It’s a trap that Dems are setting for themselves. Just watch: ODOT’s megaprojects will go ahead, cars and trucks will roll on ever-wider and faster roads, and the rest of us will get NOTHING.
Is it a trap? Or is it simply that the Dems want the megaprojects with cars and trucks on ever wider and faster roads? I’m leaning towards this is simply what they want.
Local governments are where most ped/bike/ADA projects happen, so funding them will fund more of those kinds of projects.
At least some good news, after the Dems bungled this horribly in June. Whatever legislative leaders manage to pass, two critical elements absolutely must be included:
1) Add an automatic annual inflation adjustment to any gas-tax increase for future years. The awful GOP-created 60% requirement to raise any revenue (the basic business of governing) is an unfair and nearly impossible burden. An inflation adjustment will depoliticize this issue in the future–similar to the minimum wage–avoiding the need for constant battles just to maintain our roads.
2) A major increase in the payroll tax for public transit. This is essential. Let’s hope they can get it passed.
Also, Rep. Mark Meek really needs a progressive primary challenger in 2026. He’s a Republican in Democrat clothing.
Givenhow poorly the city, county and state have performed under progressives, I’m not sure that’s a sane suggestion.
Lord help me, if new taxes didn’t take a supermajority we’d be the grifting non-profit, low growth, bloated bureaucracy, preachy greedy lawyer capital of the USA.
WashCo and MultCo people don’t ask a lot of questions because they place axiomatic trust in the great blue tax god to make life better through taking more money from the public and spending it on—who cares? It’s the thought that counts toward your proving that you care.
This should be the final blow for the I5 widening project. It will be extremely disappointing if any funding for that comes from this. Hopefully they focus on funding in the short term and then can work on a larger package in a future session
From Mahonia Hall on down you’ve got the same people in the same deck chairs. Kotek will have a sharp eye on the special session. If federal cuts didn’t kill the boondoggles already, we’re stuck.
If there was any appetite for change that ‘Oops our budget is out by $1 Billion’ hilarity would have brought it on. How can you manage billion dollar projects if that is also the over/under in your accounts?
ODOT is like a bike shop with no wrenches, they just finger tighten everything and put it out on the floor.