Oregon’s governor and ranking lawmakers on Monday said they would give $19 million to the Oregon Department of Transportation for new snow plows and winter road-safety improvements.
The stopgap funding aims to prevent the transportation department from running out of cash before the end of the 2023-2025 biennium and delay sweeping service and maintenance cuts.
Gov. Tina Kotek, Senate President Rob Wagner and House Speaker Dan Rayfield said in a statement that they will allocate the money to the state transportation department in the 2024 short legislative session.
Lawmakers said the department will use the funds as follows:
- $8 million for winter maintenance such as purchasing de-icer and salt, and for removing overtime restrictions for workers
- $4.5 million to patch pavement and fix potholes each spring to mitigate the impact of winter freezes on roads
- $2.5 million to retrace edge lines on less-traveled highways
- $4 million to replace 10 snow plow trucks
ODOT still faces a massive budget shortfall, mainly due to slower-than-anticipated growth in gas tax revenue and rising costs.
It has already considered raising DMV fees to plug the deficit, projected at $680 million by 2029. Earlier this year, ODOT’s assistant finance director Travis Brouwer said the agency anticipated that it would have to slash basic maintenance services, such as plowing snow during storms or fixing potholes, to avoid going into the red.
In a Nov. 30 letter to Kotek, Rayfield and Wagner said the Legislature would work toward modernizing the state’s transportation system during the next regular session in 2025.
—Jayati Ramakrishnan; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com