OR: Gov. Tina Kotek announces special session to secure additional transportation dollars, avoid layoffs

Gov. Tina Kotek announced Tuesday that she will call lawmakers back to Salem next month to secure additional funding for the Oregon Department of Transportation to maintain its services and avoid hundreds of layoffs.

During the special session, which will begin Aug. 29, Kotek expects lawmakers to address the state transportation agency’s $350 million shortfall and direct additional dollars to cities, counties and public transit districts after they failed to do so during the session that ended last month.

By reconvening to pass a package, lawmakers will ensure that nearly 500 state transportation agency workers who received layoff notices this month can keep their jobs, Kotek said.

“Oregonians rely on these basic services, from brush clearing to prevent wildfires to snow plowing in winter weather, and they are counting on their elected representatives to deliver adequate and stable funding,” she said in a press release.

Kotek’s announcement comes less than one month after lawmakers ended this year’s long session having failed to pass Democrat-backed transportation funding proposals that included an array of tax and fee hikes, as well as an 11th hour proposal that would have secured just enough funding to avoid layoffs at the state transportation agency.

Kotek provided few details of the funding proposal that lawmakers will take up in August, but several lawmakers told The Oregonian/OregonLive last week they expect it will include a small increase to the state’s 40 cents per gallon gas tax, a hike to the state’s 0.1% payroll tax for transit and an adjustment to the state’s fees on trucking companies.

Earlier this month, Oregon Department of Transportation leaders told 483 agency workers that they would be laid off at the end of July because lawmakers failed to act. Without more funding, agency officials said they would close 12 maintenance stations across Oregon this summer and likely lay off hundreds of more workers this winter, which they said would lead to more dangerous road conditions and deteriorating infrastructure.

Kotek indicated these reductions might not materialize.

“With the agreement of legislative leadership and with a plan for a special session now in place, I have directed ODOT to postpone the start date of layoffs for an additional 45 days, allowing impacted staff more time to make contingency plans for their livelihoods and their families,” she said.

Since the session ended, Kotek and her staff have been in frequent communication with lawmakers of both parties, including after hours and weekend phone calls, according to several sources with knowledge of the discussions.

While lawmakers this year could not reach a consensus on a long-term funding package, Kotek said she is “confident that lawmakers will step up next month” to pass a watered-down proposal to keep basic services in place and avert layoffs. She acknowledged that any bill passed next month will be a short-term funding solution that will be “the first step of many that must be taken to meet our state’s long-term transportation needs.”

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