Return of the MVET?

Richard Ford and the rest of the state Transportation Commission are gutsy.

They spent months studying how to get the Washington State Ferries the dedicated funding it needs.

Their recommendation: Bring back the MVET (motor vehicle excise tax) and raise fares by more than is already planned.

Here’s their report.

Ford presented the findings Monday to a joint meeting of the House and Senate transportation committees. Legislators appreciated the ideas but no one rushed to embrace them.

“I see that as the last thing we could ever do,” Mary Margaret Haugen, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said of reinstating the MVET. It went away in 2000 following passage of Initiative 695. When it went away, so too did a major source of funding for the ferry system.

Ford said he wasn’t surprised but the ferry system is in financial trouble. Doing what it’s doing and building the boats it needs will leave it as much as $3.5 billion in the hole by 2030..

“Nobody is going to be happy with paying more but how are going to pay for it.” he said.