An Oregon Department of Transportation snowplow clears a roadway in Baker County in November. 

Everyone may have their own list of greatest hits and greatest bombs of the 2024 legislative session. Here’s one to consider.

It’s the $39 million that the Oregon Department of Transportation got from the Legislature. Some $19 million will go to maintenance statewide. That includes funding that enabled ODOT to avoid reducing snowplowing on winter roads and cutting back on restriping highways. It also will go to purchase 10 new snowplows and allow overtime to help keep roads cleared. When Gov. Tina Kotek mentioned that money, when she was speaking recently to staff of The Bulletin and other EO Media Group newspapers.

The other $20 million will help with cleaning up graffiti, litter and camps in the Portland metro area.

In a lot of ways that money for maintenance needs was a hit for the 2024 session. But it was just as much a failure of the 2023 session. ODOT had pointed the maintenance needs to legislators. They were not exactly ignored. They were not addressed. And so after the session, ODOT pointed out the cuts that would be made. It included putting less of a priority on plowing between Bend and Sunriver, which is a place that can really use it in the thick of a storm.

Cue the concern and outrage from Oregonians. Cue the legislative response to provide funding.

The cue was the missed has been the longstanding warnings ODOT officials have been giving state legislators about sustainable funding for maintaining Oregon’s transportation system. Will legislators address that in 2025?