Fix it now or watch it sink
Published 12:01 am Sunday, January 9, 2011
It was easy to find fault with Gov. Chris Gregoire’s bold idea for preventing the state ferry system’s collapse. Her call Thursday to create a regional taxing authority in the nine counties that use ferries is, as critics in th
e Legislature were quick to point out, punting a state responsibility. It’s light on fundamental change to the system, heavy on changing who pays for it.
What can’t be faulted is her insistence on facing up to a crisis that has been building for more than a decade. The 10-year outlook for Washington State Ferries shows a $900 million shortfall — $200 million in operations and $700 million in capital (most of the latter is for replacing aging boats and terminals). Predictably, years of legislative avoidance has made the problem, and its potential solutions, increasingly perplexing.
Simply rejecting the governor’s idea, as a wave of ferry-county legislators and local officials did last week, isn’t good enough. The wisdom of Gregoire’s proposal isn’t in its substance, it’s in laying bare the seriousness of the problem in order to turn the political tide toward solving it.
Lawmakers in counties served directly by the ferry system must answer her challenge. Chief among them are Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (D-Camano Island) and Rep. Judy Clibborn (D-Mercer Island), chairs of their chambers’ transportation committees.
In a statement rejecting the governor’s plan, Haugen suggested she’ll roll out a transportation funding package that includes ferries, roads, rail and transit this session. The portion dealing with ferries will need to include a workable, long-term strategy for funding the system on which so many Puget Sound families and businesses depend.
Serious reform must be at the heart of it. Rep. Norma Smith (R-Clinton) said in a statement Friday that 69 percent of the ferry system’s operating budget is labor costs, an area that must be examined thoroughly. Regulations regarding the design and construction of ferries that drive up costs unnecessarily need to be eliminated.
We agree with the governor that privatization isn’t a workable option. Even at peak efficiency, a private operator would have to charge fares higher than the market could bear. The ferry system is and should remain an essential part of the state highway system.
As a public enterprise, though, it can’t survive without a reliable revenue source beyond fares, which already are about as high as they can go. If that doesn’t come from a regional taxing authority, it must come from the state transportation budget.
There’s no more ducking this issue. Gregoire’s bold solution may not be the right one, but a bold solution is what’s required. The budget numbers aren’t lying. The Legislature must fix the financial hole in our iconic ferry system, once and for all, or resign to watching it go under.
