State legislators are considering proposals that would raise fares for Washington State Ferries riders and hike vehicle title and registration fees statewide to begin paying for a wave of new green-and-white car ferries.

Bills in both houses of the Legislature would tack on fare surcharges on top of an existing 25-cent charge that raises funds for vessel replacements. The proposals would also direct Ferries to extend its open contract with shipbuilder Vigor Industrial, allowing for the purchase of five new 144-car Olympic-class vessels. Vigor built the state’s four existing Olympic-class vessels – Tokitae, Samish, Chimacum and Suquamish – and its contract with the state expires in June.

General, vehicle trip fares would increase

Under a House proposal, fares for vehicle trips would jump by 75 cents on top of a 6 percent general fare increase included with the House's transportation budget. A Senate measure would bump a vessel replacement surcharge by 50 cents on all one-way and round-trip fares, including multiride and monthly pass fares, and would tack on an additional 50 cent charge that multiride and monthly pass customers would be exempted from.

[Read more about bills that would bump WSF fares: House Bill 2161, Senate Bill 5992]

In two separate proposals, lawmakers are also mulling bumps to vehicle title and registration fees to raise funds for new vessels. Under a House bill, a service fee for a change to a vehicle title would double from $12 to $24 and a service fee for a registration renewal would double from $5 to $10, along with some other smaller vehicle fee increases. Under the Senate proposal, service fees on title changes and registration renewals would both go up by $2, to $14 and $7, respectively.

[Read more about bills that would bump vehicle title and registration fees: House Bill 1789, Senate Bill 5419]

A House transportation budget proposal envisions providing funding for two vessels, beginning in the 2019-2021 biennium. A Senate transportation budget proposal would provide funding for a single new vessel but not beginning until the 2023-2025 biennium.

Reactions

Lawmakers are still hashing through the fundraising proposals in legislative committees. Sen. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, said lawmakers are still trying to figure out the right ratio between fares and vehicle fees for funding the vessels.

“If we didn’t act now to extend the contract with Vigor, we risk that we were going to have to go out to a national bidding process, which would slow us down quite a bit and maybe wouldn’t save us any money,” Randall said. “It would just mean longer and longer without the vessels we needed.”

Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlach, said ferry riders wouldn’t have to bear all the costs of paying for the new vessels through fares and said a large percentage of the money would come from other funds.

“We’re looking for a way to keep that as reasonable as possible for the commuters,” he said.

Opposing the fare hikes, Rep. Drew Hansen, D-Bainbridge Island, said he wanted to see the new vessels funded “as the marine highways that they are.”

“It seems like ferry riders are being asked to pay for more of the share of the costs for marine highways than a lot drivers are being asked to pay for new physical highways,” he said. “And I’m not comfortable with that.”

In public hearings for the fare-raising bills, Kingston’s Walt Elliott, representing citizen ferry advisory committees, supported building new vessels but opposed the hikes, warning legislators that a fare hike “puts ferry service further out of the reach of lower income community,” he said, “and I don’t think that’s the purpose of a public transportation system.”

Fare increases have diminishing returns and can actually serve to push riders away, Elliott said, pointing to ridership declines that accompanied large fare increases in the early 2000s (hikes came after the loss off motor vehicle excise tax revenues following the approval of Initiative 695). When that happens, the state loses the rider’s total fare and not just what it would have gained from the hike, Elliott noted.

“Riders understand the need to contribute to the funding,” he said. “We also look to you to keep the fare increases reasonable.”

WSF is estimating a new Olympic-class vessel would cost in the neighborhood of $160 million. Extending the Vigor contract and using the existing designs would probably mean a boat ready to sail within two years, WSF spokesman Ian Sterling said. Allowing the contract to lapse and going back to the drawing board could push back a delivery date “substantially,” as much as seven to 10 years, he said.

“Both houses of the Legislature and the governor seem to understand the importance of replacing the aging fleet and stabilizing the system,” Sterling said. “The biggest question is: How do you pay for it?”