We will pay if work goes out of state

The decision on who builds our state ferries runs much deeper than just price tags and bidding processes (“Taxpayers deserve all ferry-construction options,” Nov. 24 guest commentary). Of course the state should be financially responsible, but we shouldn’t throw away our future just because someone thinks we might “save money” in the short term.

I think we’d probably end up paying more, financially and in many other ways, if we let the state send its ferry construction business to another state. In return for lower wages and lax environmental regulations in the South, we’d probably end up with ferries that are nowhere near as good as what we have today.

As someone who knows a bit about the industry, I can tell you it’s real easy for others to suggest a price when they don’t have to stand behind it and actually be held to it as a bid. The devil is in the details. The state’s contract requirements extend to hundreds of pages. Even the shipbuilder from Mississippi agreed the state’s timeline for the ferry construction wasn’t realistic — so we aren’t even talking apples-to-apples when comparing the construction of a second Island Home in Mississippi to the construction of a 64-car ferry that Washington State has specified.

Keeping ferry construction in Washington preserves a critical industry that’s been around for more than a century and protects many family-wage jobs in a state that desperately needs them. Once those jobs leave Washington, they never come back. Creating new jobs keeps Washington taxpayer dollars in the hands of Washington taxpayers. These dollars in turn are generally spent in Washington at Washington businesses, which create more tax revenue for the state.

To keep our ferry system going with the best boats in the world, we need them built by local industry that will keep Washington strong.

Gary Powers

Seattle