State ferries headed in the right direction

by Sen. Harriet Spanel

Washington State Ferries has been in the news recently, and it hasn’t been pretty. Between the short-notice retirements of the antiquated Steel Electric boats that served the Keystone – Port Townsend run to the more recent shuffling of vessels to accommodate urgently needed inspections, Washington residents now understand that our iconic ferries are in serious trouble.

It wasn’t always that way.

Eight years ago, voters in this state were presented with what is today an all-too-common opportunity — the chance to approve an initiative that claimed to provide lower taxes without reducing government services.

Promoters of Initiative 695 told the voters of Washington that they could save hundreds of dollars a year on their car tabs — and that they wouldn’t have to worry about any service cuts from state or local government. The Motor Vehicle Excise Tax was the major funding source for the ferry system and, when voters overwhelmingly approved the initiative, and the Legislature agreed, that revenue disappeared.

Since 2000, WSF has significantly increased fares to make up for the loss of revenue to their operating budget — increases that didn’t even keep pace with rising fuel costs. Further increases are on hold for another year.

Back in 2003, the Legislature provided funding to replace the Steel Electric ferries, but progress on the construction of the new replacement boats was delayed by litigation.

So ferry officials kept patching the Steel Electrics as they tried to squeeze a little more life out of them, waiting for some resolution. Ships that were state of the art when they were built — in 1927, before most people in Washington were born — were patched and painted so many times that half of the steel in their hulls was eventually deemed beyond repair.

In 2006, the Joint Transportation Committee set up the Ferry Financing Committee to study the ferry system’s short-term and long-term financial situation. That bipartisan committee, which I chaired, is halfway through this comprehensive review.

In 2007, we implemented the recommendations of the first phase of the study. These included identifying necessary data and setting a process in place to make informed decisions. We directed WSF to look for ways to spread demand so as to possibly reduce the need for costly capital investments. We also directed WSF to employ the most efficient balance of operating and capital investments.

Funding on many of the terminal projects was delayed so that assessments could be made to ensure they are the proper projects to be spending money on. The Anacortes terminal is the only terminal that received funding to move forward with the design phase.

Recent events have highlighted the need for expediency, as the aged Steel Electrics were abruptly taken out of service last November. Removal of these vessels because of public safety concerns, agreed to unanimously by the financing committee, has put further pressure on our strained ferry system.

We have continued our oversight of WSF during the 2008 session by focusing on vessel preservation. We’ve directed WSF to develop and maintain a vessel maintenance and preservation program to keep vessels running longer and safer, and a vessel rebuild and replacement plan to help with long-range planning.

We are looking at a broad range of financing alternatives and will report back to the Legislature by the end of this year. This report will include a vessel sizing study to ensure that we have the right-sized boat on the right run at the right time of year.

Gov. Gregoire recently signed a bill sponsored by Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen to fast-track procurement of a smaller car ferry, capable of holding less than 100 cars, for the Keystone-Port Townsend run. In addition, two medium-size boats will be built with this procurement. The process to build three 144-vehicle boats for the rest of the system has already begun.

There is no quick fix to this serious problem, but we are moving forward. I believe that we are headed in the right direction and that the decisions we are making for the ferry system will hold for the long term.

Sen. Harriet Spanel represents Washington’s 40th legislative district, which includes Anacortes and the San Juan Islands.

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