Up to 700 Oregon Department of Transportation workers face layoffs after state lawmakers failed to adopt a comprehensive transportation package before the legislative session ended last week.
The layoffs are set to begin on Monday with managers speaking individually to employees and formal letters going out, Lindsay Baker, ODOT's assistant director of government and external relations, said in an email sent to agency employees.
The employees will remain employed through July and some will have the option to move into other positions, Baker said.
ODOT Director Kris Strickler sent an email to the entire agency at midnight on Saturday announcing layoffs were coming, just minutes after the session ended Friday.
"The legislative session ended without the legislature passing
"The inaction leaves ODOT without enough funding to continue our core operations and maintenance functions and serve the communities of Oregonians who rely on us," he wrote.
"I know this is shocking, scary and frustrating for every single one of you," Strickler wrote. "It is for me too."
ODOT leadership spent the weekend meeting with the governor's office, ODOT union leadership and the Department of Administrative Services to solidify a reduction plan, according to Baker's email.
The plan is to focus on reducing vacant positions and non-personnel spending to save as many jobs as possible, but the agency anticipates losing 600 to 700 current employees, Baker said.
ODOT has warned lawmakers for several years that the structural revenue issue driven by flattening and declining gas tax revenue, inflation and statutory restrictions would eventually force the agency to dramatically reduce its staffing and maintenance service levels, said Kevin Glenn, ODOT's director of communications. For the past three biennia, ODOT has taken progressively larger voluntary cuts to stay within budget, he said.
ODOT has about 4,700 employees,
"We are still working through the exact number of layoffs we will need to make as a result of the legislature's failure to pass a transportation budget," Glenn said. "It will be hundreds of employees. I expect to know more details next week."
Since last summer, the agency warned that if the legislature didn't address the estimated $300 million shortfall before the biennia the began, deeper cuts would have to start in the 2025-27 biennium, Strickler said.
The state had to approve $19 million in
ODOT receives the majority of its funding for operations and maintenance from the State Highway Fund, which is funded by DMV fees, the state's gas tax and taxes on trucking companies.
The agency can't use federal funding for maintenance projects and state law prevents the agency from using project or transit money to pay for maintenance or agency operations, Glenn said.
Lawmakers spent a year working on House Bill 2025, the transportation package. Majority Democrats couldn't put together the three-fifths supermajority needed to pass the bill, which included $14.6 billion in tax and fee increases over the next decade.
Gov. Tina Kotek alluded to the fact she might call a special session during a media briefing Saturday, but her response to a reporter's question on the topic wasn't clear and her press secretary declined to comment.
She also noted on Saturday that while she was in Salem working, lawmakers had gone home after passing the budget without the transportation package on Friday.
"Legislators have gone home, and they have not produced anything on transportation that we need right now in the state," she said.
