PBOT warns deepening budget cuts will shrink basic street maintenance and safety work

The Portland Bureau of Transportation told the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that continued revenue declines and rising internal costs have left the bureau unable to meet public expectations for basic maintenance and safety.

“Thinking about the very real consequences of that underinvestment is what keeps me up at night,” Director Millicent Williams said. “Assets failing, safety compromised, livability diminished, public trust destroyed.”

PBOT said the bureau manages roughly $21,000,000,000 in transportation assets and faces about a $6,000,000,000 asset maintenance backlog. The bureau said more than half of the city’s busiest streets are in “poor or worse” condition, local streets are in worse shape, and that pavement is the city’s single largest asset. PBOT also noted it has eliminated many maintenance programs after seven consecutive years of programmatic reductions.

The presentation listed recent service cuts already in effect: elimination of residential street sweeping programs (including “leaf day”), sharply reduced paving and signal/streetlight maintenance, reduced traffic‑calming response capacity and a shrink in crews that used to do safety work. Williams said PBOT’s discretionary funds remain the primary lever for targeted safety fixes — crosswalks, signal timing and small‑scale crash‑reduction projects — but those teams have been pared from five to one.

Williams told councilors the bureau is again facing large reductions in the next budget cycle: “Heading into fiscal year ’25–’26 we are once again facing down the need to take massive reductions. Our current estimates are that we will need to cut about $38,000,000 in general transportation revenue.” She added that such cuts would leave PBOT “not the same bureau” and further impair its ability to deliver even basic transportation services.

Committee members repeatedly connected those funding pressures to declining gas tax and parking revenue and rising centralized administrative costs. Williams said general fund overhead and inter‑agency charges have grown substantially and that PBOT receives only about 2% of general fund dollars while still bearing rising internal costs.

Councilors pressed for prioritized lists and federal funding strategies; PBOT said it maintains condition and vulnerability inventories for bridges and other structures and has pursued federal appropriations for some projects. Williams urged the committee to treat the bureau’s situation as urgent: “We have the tools but we cannot meet community expectations unless we solve our funding crisis.”

The committee scheduled a deeper dive on PBOT at its next meeting and signaled cross‑committee work (finance, workforce) to explore revenue and asset‑management solutions.

Ending: The committee asked PBOT to return with more detailed prioritization, funding scenarios and lists of high‑risk bridges and corridors. Councilors said they plan follow‑up hearings and possible cross‑committee work to identify revenue and cost‑management options.