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<br /> the funding gap with diminished usage tax <br /> revenues is only exacerbated. The shortfall is <br /> further compounded by substantial <br /> construction cost escalation that has been <br /> buffeting the Agency's budget. This has <br /> markedly reduced the purchasing power of a <br /> construction dollar for the past four to five <br /> <br /> years. With the deflation in commodity <br /> <br /> prices since the summer of 2008, we should <br /> expect some welcomed mitigation of this <br /> erosion in purchasing power going forward, <br /> but this serves nevertheless to only a partly <br /> ameliorate the problems challenging ODOT's <br /> highway and bridge budgets. <br /> v <br /> <br />