Kotek calls special session, pushes back layoffs – BikePortland

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.