QuickTake:

The state transportation agency estimates 600 to 700 workers will receive layoff notices next week, after the legislature failed to pass a transportation bill this session. 

The Oregon Department of Transportation is facing layoffs that will decimate its workforce.

Later this month, an estimated 600 to 700 workers in the state transportation agency will receive layoff notices. The pink slips come after the Legislature failed to pass a transportation package that would prop up an agency facing declining fuel-tax revenues because of increased use of fuel-efficient and electric vehicles amid a backdrop of soaring inflation. 

A state memo sent to the more than 4,700 current ODOT employees says the affected workers will hear from their managers this week and receive a formal letter next week.

“This is the hardest message I’ve ever had to send in my career,” ODOT Director Kris Strickler said in an email to agency employees. “For many years, this agency has informed the Oregon Legislature that a structural revenue issue driven by flattening and declining gas tax revenue, inflation and statutory restrictions on available funding would eventually force the agency to dramatically reduce its staffing and service levels if no intervention came forward.”

ODOT is responsible for maintaining, repairing and tending state highways and interstates. In general, cities like Eugene are responsible for city streets, though municipalities can have agreements with the state to maintain portions of highways inside city limits. 

State transportation officials said they did not know yet how the layoffs might affect Lane County.

Overall, the state agency has 4,734 filled positions throughout Oregon, which includes permanent, temporary and seasonal positions. Another 949 positions are already vacant in the agency’s previously budgeted workforce of 5,683 positions.

In Lane County, ODOT has 148 employees, according to figures the agency provided Tuesday. Another 21 positions are vacant in the county.

Lane County is part of ODOT’s Region 2, which also includes Clatsop, Columbia, Tillamook, Yamhill, Polk, Marion, Lincoln, Benton, Linn and western portions of Washington and Clackamas counties. In Region 2, ODOT has 505 employees, and another 114 vacancies.

In a Saturday press conference, the day after the session ended, Gov. Tina Kotek hinted that she might summon a special session on transportation funding, but didn’t show her hand. The governor’s aides had no updates Tuesday.

“I just will say, though, as governor my job is to get the job done, and I have tools at my disposal to get that done,” Kotek said. “And I just hope everyone’s going to show up for work when they need it.”

The maintenance and operations side of the agency, which relies heavily on fuel-tax revenues, is expected to be hit hard. The Service Employees International Union — which represents about half of the agency’s workers, including 1,700 in maintenance and operations, and another 800 at Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services — is scrambling to make sure workers’ rights are protected and as many jobs as possible are preserved.

Melissa Unger, executive director of SEIU Local 503, said the union is also pushing for a solution that eluded lawmakers this session.

“We’re also trying to continue to say, ‘Let’s do something different here,’” Unger said in an interview with Lookout Eugene-Springfield. “We can still solve this problem by making sure we keep our roads safe and save these jobs.”

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.