| What do rising electric rates, rolling blackouts, and a proposed doubling of ferry fares have in common? They represent the result of a massive transfer of wealth from Western to Eastern Washington. Electrical rates are rising here even as some are threatened with the loss of electricity this winter because of a shortage of water to go through the turbines of the dams that were paid for by Western Washington ratepayers. The giant, often out of state corporations that use water for irrigation in Eastern Washington have never paid their assessed share of the costs of dam construction, yet they buy water for a tiny fraction of what it costs water purchasers in Western Washington. Every gallon of water that goes on their fields is a gallon of water that does not pass through turbines. Every bale of alfalfa that is shipped from Eastern Washington to Japan represents a home in Western Washington that may go unheated because of power costs or shortages. It may also represent aircraft parts or software delayed or undelivered because of the same power shortages.
Eastern Washington counties take more from the State than they pay in taxes. This is particularly true for fuel taxes. Yet Eastern Washington legislators deny Puget Sound residents the equitable use of transportation funds to allow for affordable ferry system mass transit. An example of the way in which our friends in Eastern Washington deny our ability to create our own transportation future is the debate over studded tires. These tires cost the State ten million dollars a year in destroyed road surfaces. We in the West want them disallowed. Our friends in the East have blocked any attempt to make them illegal. That ten million dollars a year would go a long way toward keeping ferry fares affordable.
I always thought the conservatives of Eastern Washington believed in user fees rather than general taxation. If their constituents want to drive long distances over public roads on studded tires why are they not asked to pay in the form of higher gas taxes and studded tire taxes?
Western Washington Republican legislators in particular need to ask themselves if their loyalty is to their constituents or their party. Peninsula legislators need to ask why those East of the Mountains can potentially cause the Olympic Peninsula to lose its economic base as it loses its transportation base. Any attempt to raise ferry fares to the levels being discussed will destroy this magnificent mass transit system. It will result in more pollution of Puget Sound air as motorists are forced back into their cars, and as growth shifts from the Peninsula back into the Seattle Metro area. It will essentially nullify all the work of the Economic Development Council to attract employers to Kitsap County. We need all Western Washington legislators to insist that Eastern Washington share in the pain of water and power shortages and of increased transportation costs. We in the West have the population, we pay the majority of taxes. We should not stand by and allow our future to be undermined by politicians who do not live here and do not care about the pain they cause us.
Gerard Bentryn
Bainbridge Island. | 
