Legislators left a mess that demands a prompt cleanupThe Oregon Legislature opened this year’s session with three tasks towering over the rest:- Balancing the budget in the face of worrisome economic slippage and continued economic uncertainty. And it failed to pass any new transportation package at all, raising the specter of imminent layoffs at ODOT. Tina Kotek and the Republican opposition were, to be sure, complicit as well in collapse of the transportation funding bill as the session dissolved in disarray. Though Kotek reserved her strongest ire for Republican opponents, she also chastised Democratic colleagues for the bungled transportation package. Lawmakers left behind important unfinished business with they left town.