Yellow Pages
Generating desperately needed Washington State Ferries funding, and saving the Anacortes to Sidney run, could come down to raising fares for operating costs and state taxes for new boats and terminals.
Those recommendations came from the Washington State Transportation Commission last week along with its suggestion to stick with option A of WSF’s long-range plan — keeping current routes and service. The report goes next to the Legislature, which is wrestling with the ferry budget and long-term funding plans.
Option A represents business as usual with a $213 million operating funding gap and a $3.1 billion capital funding gap. Option B has a $1.3 billion capital funding gap and produces a downsized system with service reductions and the elimination of the international route — something the report did not favor.
Gov. Christine Gregoire’s biennium budget proposal also cancels the run.
The commission proposes ferry fare increases of 6 percent a year for five years followed by annual adjustments for inflation as opposed to WSF’s suggestion of 2.5 percent a year increases. Other suggestions are fuel surcharges and summer season super-surcharges that would ask single fare ticket purchasers to pay 15 percent more than regular peak fees.
More aggressive advertising, on-board concessions and vessel naming rights were other revenue recommendations.
The suggestions put the burden of operations on users, according to a report prepared by Cambridge Systematics, Inc., which works with the state on transportation issues.
A statewide tax or fee would be the most feasible means of meeting long-term capital needs, the report states. State taxes already support the ferry system. The funding crisis is in large part due to the removal of the state Motor Vehicle Excise Tax.
“Restoring state support would address that cause,” Cambridge said.
A vehicle-value based or similar tax could meet capital needs and be a dedicated and reliable revenue source to ensure capital preservation and replacement as opposed to ad hoc legislative administrative transfers, the report states. WSF’s capital program needs, as laid out in option A, can be met with a .21 percent MVET. That would be $21 on a $10,000 vehicle.
The commission also suggests looking into service reductions to reduce costs — a compromise between service levels in option A and B — and eliminating the “Build it in Washington Requirements,” which prevent the use of federal funds and limits competitive bids in building ferries.
The same day the commission released its recommendations, residents from ferry-served communities rallied on the capital steps.
Anacortes Mayor Dean Maxwell spoke at the Save Our Ferry rally Feb. 18 organized by Vashon Island and the Ferry Community Partnership during a trip to Olympia with the Association of Washington Cities.
Maxwell told the crowd legislators are working hard to preserve the ferry runs and talked of the findings in the E. D. Hovee & Co. report, which spells out the economic advantages of the Sidney run.
While in the state capital, Maxwell met with city lobbyist Mike Ryherd, Senior Advisor to the Governor Marty Loesch, Speaker of the House Frank Chopp and other legislators. All have been impressed by the Hovee report, he said.
Maxwell and other local Save Our Ferry members made a trip to Sidney Feb. 13 to participate in a community meeting organized by the Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce.
It was a good meeting, said SOF member and Ferry Advisory Committee Chair Duane Clark.
“There were only two themes — this ferry run is important to people and businesses on both sides of the border in many ways, and we must make every effort to save our ferry,” Clark said in an e-mail.
The group will now focus on getting more community members to send messages to Olympia about saving the run, Clark said.
The Sidney community is also getting very active, sending e-mails to legislaters and starting a petition.
“Of course that’s a unique point of view that may or may not carry weight in Olympia,” Clark said.
March 2 is the deadline for the Senate Transportation Committee to complete its version of the transportation budget. It goes next to the House, which has an April 6 deadline. The final budget isn’t expected to go to Gregoire until April 26, the last day of the session.
