Outside the Lines: Ferry Tales XXVII

Ferry Fairy Makes a Monster

By signing Senate Bill 6787 recently, Governor Gregoire may have created a beast in granting the Commissioners' wish for more money.

Skagit County Board of Commissioners (BOC) , and other counties in the state that operate ferries, have been authorized by the state to form ferry districts. This is to become effective on June 6, 2006.

There is $9 million waiting to be disbursed once the BOC defines and creates this ferry district. I don’t think they’ll pass up the chance for some of the money. One of my concerns is how the BOC will “create and define” this district. District boundaries and taxes can be determined with nothing more than one public meeting. I’ve attended these public meetings and can say with certainty, public input at these meetings has no effect.

According to Senate bill 6787 all taxable property in this district could be taxed up to seventy-five cents per thousand dollars of assessed value. $75.00 additional property tax annually for a hundred thousand dollar property. This would be in addition to any future fare increases.

A SVH June 12, 2005 editorial states that "Guemes Island is part of Skagit County and not a private preserve." Citizens of the County should bear the burden of cost of infrastructure equally. That's how it went down in Civics 101. La Conner property owners are not assessed more for their bridge. Guemes property owners should not be assessed more for their ferry.

The boundaries established could be countywide and reduce the proposed tax to between five or ten cents per hundred thousand assessed value. This would lessen the burden on Guemes. Have our illustrious BOC ever tried to lessen our burden?

The extended ferry hours rears its ugly head once more in the Transportation Policy of the Comprehensive Plan. It remedies increased capacity demands by encouraging car-pooling and walk-on passengers. The policy also states the increase of ferry runs based on demand. If neither of those remedies work additional ferry capacity will be considered. There is another provision proposing “adding additional runs outside the current schedule”, whether or not the other methods are in place. Why, then, do we bother having these “other methods” written into the policy?

I can only hope that our Guemes Island Ferry Committee {GIFC} and Friends of Guemes Island {FGI} step up to the plate, and communicate to their fellow islanders the recourses to take. These groups were formed to deal with ferry issues and specifically the extended weeknight hours. OK, now is the time to deal with this issue.

GIPOA President Howard Pellett has invited Commissioner Don Munks to attend the annual GIPOA meeting June 10, 2006. This is less that a week after Senate Bill 6787 goes into effect. The Commissioner has indicated that he will attend. Good, I have a few questions for him.

- MJ Andrak

[4.20.6]

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