State Rep. Khanh Pham, a Democrat, has proposed a fix-it for Oregon’s inclination to build new roads and not maintain the old. She has offered the idea of a bill to “Fix it First.” The Oregon Department of Transportation would be required to demonstrate that building a new project would not hurt the ability of the state to maintain what it has.

It’s a legislative version of: “If you don’t clean your room, you can’t go to the movie.”

We read about Pham’s idea in an article in the Oregon Capital Chronicle looking again at the problem of state road maintenance. For a while last year, it appeared as if Oregon would be in the absurd situation of making highways less safe. The Oregon Department of Transportation warned it had to cut snowplowing. It had to cut repainting lines, repairing potholes and more because legislators had not given them the money to do so.

We did go back and listen to the budget hearings where ODOT officials made their warnings. And the fact is legislators may not have known exactly how much ODOT would have to cut snowplowing and other maintenance, but ODOT did tell them cuts would have to be made. Legislators did not ensure that was avoided. It was only after ODOT sent letters to legislators and put warnings on its website, after the session ended, did legislators act. Apparently, there is a deal among Gov. Tina Kotek, Senate President Rob Wagner and House Speaker Dan Rayfield to send $19 million to ODOT in this year’s special session to avoid the worst of any maintenance shortfall.

We appreciated the logic of Pham’s suggestion. Does it really take a law, though, to require legislators to look at the transportation budget and make good choices about how the money is spent?