It has been a long and choppy crossing.

Since my days as executive director of the Bremerton Chamber of Commerce in the late 1980s, I have been working with the business community to get one fundamental message to Olympia: The economic viability of Kitsap County – one of the fastest-growing counties in the state – depends on ferry service and the expansion of the marine highways connecting us to the I-5 and I-90 corridors.

So it was a happy day in 1999 when, as a state senator, I voted with the majority of the members of the Legislature to invest $100 million to launch passenger-only ferry service from Kingston and Southworth to Seattle, joining the Bremerton service.

But, as we all know, that satisfaction was short-lived. Several months after the Legislature adjourned in 1999, Washington voters approved Initiative 695, which eliminated the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax (MVET) – and with it, any chance of expanded passenger services for Kitsap.

Unbeknownst to many folks who opposed this license tab fee, the MVET was the lifeblood of the ferry system, providing 20 percent of the funds to operate the system and 82 percent of the system’s capital budget. Altogether, the fee rollback took $253 million out of a $583 million budget.

It is grossly unfair that our marine highway bore the brunt of the rollback. But that is the reality, and there’s no going back.

Now, I believe, we have to focus on two central facts:
• The ferry service is vital to the continued economic vitality of Kitsap; and
• We have to ensure its continued viability.

The question, as always, is “How?”

The Task Force on Ferries – made up of legislators, citizens, and ferry workers and management – has estimated that continuing to operate our current system will cost $344 million during the next two years. But the gas tax, fares and registration fees will generate only $245 million – leaving about $100 million unaccounted for.

In mid-January, the task force recommended increasing fares to make up the shortfall, saying riders should bear 80 percent of the operating costs within six years. Currently, fares generate only about 20 percent of the operating costs of passenger-only ferries.

Since the task force’s report, the debate has centered on how that increased burden should be shared. In recognition of the faster service, should passenger-only fares increase more than twofold, as the tariff policy recommends? Should auto ferry riders be asked to pitch in more? Or should the state kick in more from the general fund?

What is fair?

As that debate continues during the next three months, I will continually and persistently be working with my seatmates, Rep. Phil Rockefeller and Rep. Beverly Woods, to remind our colleagues that ferries, by constitutional decree, are part of the state highway system – as vital to Kitsap as I-5 and I-90 are to King County.
We need to maximize state support for ferries, but we must do so without taking funds earmarked for the education of our children. At the same time, users of the ferry system will have to share a greater part of the burden. There is no getting around that reality.

But the increases can’t be imposed too fast or too unfairly, and at the end of the day, we need a system that’s reliable, convenient – and affordable.