PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — The fallout over state lawmakers’ failure to pass a solution to the Oregon Department of Transportation’s budget deficit totaling more than $350 million could have widespread impacts beyond potholes and snowplows.
ODOT has declined multiple requests for an interview but said in a written statement that it plans to lay off “hundreds” of employees starting next week. Though unclear where those layoffs would take place, ODOT has said it has already eliminated a number of vacant positions within the DMV that it had hoped to fill.
As first reported by The Oregonian, the agency also penned a letter to the city of Portland indicating it will not renew its intergovernmental agreement with the city to provide homeless camp cleanup along the Interstate 5 corridor. The agreement expired at the end of June. The state agency had paid the city approximately $4 million over the past two years to clean up the camps…