The Oregon Department of Transportation says shutdowns related to the coronavirus are taking a bite out of the agency’s financial outlook.
ODOT’s revenue streams depend a great deal on people having jobs and commuting to them. The state’s gas tax funds highways, and a payroll tax goes toward public transit.
With so many Oregonians working from home or simply losing their jobs altogether, the agency’s financial outlook took a sizable hit this spring. Internal projections show revenues will be down more than $300 million over the next five years, said Travis Brouwer, ODOT's Assistant Director. “Basically, all the revenue sources for all the different types of transportation are getting hit pretty hard by COVID-19," he said. "And we’re going to have to look across the entire transportation system as we look how we can balance all these things out.”
Brouwer says construction projects also receive federal funding, and so far that source has not been impacted
