Dozens of prospective construction and utilities workers attend a career day hosted by the Oregon Department of Transportation in Eastern Oregon on April 25, 2017. (Photo courtesy of Oregon Department of Transportation/Flickr)

In an email to ODOT staff Saturday, Director Kris Strickland said the agency will be forced to eliminate hundreds of positions

The Oregon Department of Transportation plans to lay off up to 700 employees as soon as the week of July 7, with layoffs taking effect by the end of the month, according to emails from agency leadership obtained by the Oregon Capital Chronicle.

The move comes after the Oregon Legislature adjourned for the year Friday without passing a transportation funding bill that the department needs to maintain staff and close a more than $300 million shortfall.

ODOT Director Kristopher Strickler said in a 12:22 a.m. email to staff Saturday — sent just hours after House Republicans voted not to move on a funding bill for the agency — that the Legislature’s inability to pass a transportation package to keep the agency solvent is “shocking, scary and frustrating.”

Strickler said the email was “the hardest message I’ve ever had to send in my career.” Employees who do jobs that are funded by the state highway fund will be most vulnerable to layoffs, he wrote, but the agency is trying to save as many positions as possible by leaving current vacancies unfilled. Still, they said, between 600 and 700 employees would likely be laid off.

The consequences of the Legislature’s inaction go beyond staffing cuts, according to transportation advocates and local transit agencies, which are preparing for broader challenges to maintain their own aging infrastructure.

House Bill 2025, in its original form, would have raised the state gas and payroll taxes, increased vehicle licensing and registration fees and created new taxes on car sales to generate nearly $14.6 billion for the Oregon Department of Transportation and local governments over the next 10 years. By the last day of the session, lawmakers failed to pass a watered-down version that would’ve raised $2 billion over the next decade only for the state transportation department, by raising the state gas tax 3 cents and increasing licensing and registration fees.

Strickler said the only way out of the agency’s budget problem is for the Legislature to dedicate additional funding or provide more flexibility in how current funds are spent. He said the costs for inaction from the Legislature will be long-term.

“It’s sure to cost the state more in the long run as our assets deteriorate. And that doesn’t even account for the immense cost of losing the valuable, irreplaceable knowledge that resides in the ODOT people who have dedicated years – sometimes decades – of their lives to making our agency and transportation system safe and reliable,” he wrote to staff.

Local officials, transportation advocates express disappointment

Some advocates and public officials are urging lawmakers to take action in a special session.

The Oregon Transit Association expressed concern that Oregonians would lose access to public transit, pointing to the financial strain and high operation costs transit agencies are already facing. The original transportation proposal would have increased the portion of state payroll taxes that go to public transit from 0.1% to 0.3% over several years. Without an increase, officials at TriMet, Portland’s public transit agency, said they have to cut 27% of their bus service, eliminating 45 of 79 bus lines.

“Vital infrastructure jobs are on the line, and our ability to deliver basic safety services like filling potholes and improving traffic conditions is at risk,” Portland Mayor Keith Wilson told the Capital Chronicle. “I urge the legislature to act quickly and deliver a solution that supports all Oregon communities, including Portland.”

Like Wilson, Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler previously testified in favor of House Bill 2025, which she said would have especially helped fund safety maintenance needed throughout Highway 97 in Central Oregon.

However, Kebler opposed lawmakers’ last attempt at a transportation package, House Bill 3402, which proposed to raise taxes and fees to fund the Oregon Department of Transportation and would not have extended any additional funding to cities and counties.

“Any revenue increase for transportation needs to be shared fairly with cities so that we can keep up with increasing demands on our local systems in the face of rising costs,” Kebler told the Capital Chronicle.

The City of Bend has worked in past years to increase its transportation funding, but it cannot do it alone, Kebler said, adding that she’s hopeful lawmakers will return for a special session.

Without a transportation package, counties will be unable to afford safety upgrades such as reflective striping, rumble strips and guard rails, according to Erin Good, a spokesperson for the Association of Oregon Counties. Investments in bridge replacements and improvements to emergency response routes won’t happen, and counties will face staff reductions, resulting in less resources for pavement repairs, pothole fixes and routine infrastructure maintenance, she said.

Brett Morgan, a lobbyist and transportation policy director at the nonprofit environmental group Climate Solutions said the package could have saved lives.

“These investments could have made a real difference for Oregonians: they would have meant fewer crashes, more lives saved, and stable transit funding that would have enabled people to get to work, school, or the doctor’s office,” Morgan said. “Oregonians deserve a transportation system that is safe, clean, and fair. We will continue to fight to make that vision a reality.”