Roughly 50 Portland transportation employees are on track to lose their jobs next week due to the unexpected collapse of a state plan to fund transportation agencies.

“The loss of valued employees, along with their experience and knowledge, is irreplaceable,” said Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Millicent Williams at a Monday council committee meeting.

She said staff will be notified of layoffs as soon as July 14. Those layoffs won’t go into effect for several months, according to PBOT spokesperson Dylan Rivera.

The Oregon Legislature’s failure to pass its marquee transportation package last month has left Portland with an $11 million gap in its transportation budget. The shortfall will be felt in stalled pedestrian safety projects and maintenance work – meaning unpaved streets, crumbling sidewalks and broken streetlights, Williams said. It also means cutting the city staffers who do that work.

The news of layoffs follows a tumultuous city budget process that led to dozens of job cuts across city departments, not including PBOT. City leaders did not anticipate the failure of a state funding package, which was expected to fill PBOT’s budget deficit.

“If I wasn’t livid before, I’m even more livid now,” said District 3 Councilor Angelita Morillo after learning of the layoffs and other cuts.

City councilors advanced a resolution Monday that urged Gov. Tina Kotek to convene a special legislative session to address transportation funding.

It’s not certain which PBOT jobs will be first on the chopping block. Representatives from several city labor unions said they’re waiting for more information from the city. Ryan Sotomayor is the spokesperson for Laborers’ Local 483, which represents more than 200 PBOT employees. He characterized the pending layoffs as a “gut punch.”

“We just got through this hard budget process with the city,” Sotomayor said. “And now, we’re having to start over. Our members are in a constant state of flux. That does not build a bunch of confidence in the city or state leaders.”

Sotomayor said city officials need to rethink the way they fund transportation. Some city councilors agree. On Monday, the city’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a resolution that would urge city administrators to strategize new ways to pay for transportation in Portland.

“There is an urgent need to identify and develop systemic and sustainable funding alternatives,” reads the resolution, introduced by District 4 Councilor Olivia Clark.

PBOT’s revenue comes from parking fees and state and local gas taxes, sources that have steadily declined as Oregonians have switched to more fuel-efficient vehicles. It’s an unsustainable model, according to Williams.

“The transportation revenue system is heavily dependent on the consumption of fossil fuels, which is problematic for both climate and for future funding stability,” she said.

This structure has placed the bureau in a budget crisis year after year. PBOT started this year’s budget process with a $38 million deficit, a hole that was filled with a patchwork of fee increases and a proposed reliance on state funding. Williams anticipates that shortfall growing larger each year that the city doesn’t change its revenue model.

“This is not a matter of tightening our belts and finding efficiencies,” she said. “This is PBOT’s seventh year of reductions. The belt is already very tight. We need to address the lack of sufficient stable revenue. Without that, we cannot make meaningful progress toward the city’s transportation goals.”

Along with standard operating costs, PBOT has a maintenance backlog nearing $6 billion.

It’s not clear what options the city will consider for restructuring its transportation revenue. Earlier this year, Mayor Keith Wilson said he’s begun looking into a new utility fee to pay for road maintenance. Several councilors have expressed support of the mayor’s plan.

The resolution approved Monday to research alternate revenue streams now heads to the full council for final approval.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/07/07/portland-transportation-workers-face-layoffs/