Video lottery revenues evaporated as Oregon’s bars and restaurants closed during the coronavirus outbreak, which means there’s now less money available for fighting weeds and pests.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture expects the $10.6 million of its 2019-2021 biennial budget that was expected to come from lottery funds will have to be reduced by 30%, said Lisa Hanson, the agency’s deputy director.

“For us, it’s a cash flow problem initially as well as not knowing how much we’re going to get,” Hanson said during a remote June 18 meeting of the Oregon Board of Agriculture, which advises ODA.

Though the ODA received its full quarterly distribution of lottery funds in May, it’s bracing for a decrease in August. Among the programs most likely affected by a drop in lottery funds are noxious weed control and the prevention and management of insects and pests.

In practical terms, that means certain weed eradication projects won’t go forward or won’t receive state money, while ODA won’t be hiring seasonal workers to set insect traps that help the agency decide how best to control pests next year, she said.

Instead, ODA employees and volunteers will be setting the insect traps, Hanson later said. The agency has scaled back trapping due to past budget shortfalls “but not as drastically as we’d have to do this time.”

An ounce of pest prevention is worth a pound of cure, as infestations tend to grow more expensive when they go undiscovered, Hanson said. “The key to the eradication programs is early detection and rapid response. Finding things early when they’re small is the best approach.”

Aside from anticipating a plunge in lottery revenue, ODA is also recommending 8.5% reductions to several program allotments expected to draw from the agency’s $26 million general fund during the current biennium, as requested by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown.

In reality, these reductions would amount to 17% since there’s only one year left in the current biennium, Hanson said. The governor can act on those recommendations in forming her own budget reductions or the Legislature can make more precise cutbacks.

“We’re still unclear how big the shortfall is going to be,” she said. “There are still a lot of balls up in the air.”

Among general fund reductions, ODA recommends eliminating:

• $600,000 for laboratory equipment upgrades.

• $200,000 in predator control payments.

• $280,000 slated for the Oregon Invasive Species Council, which conducts education, outreach and coordination.

Likewise, more than $170,000 would be reduced from the pesticide stewardship partnership, under which ODA works with other agencies to develop non-regulatory approaches to prevent pesticides from entering waterways.

“This is all about tightening our belts,” Hanson said.