Passenger-Only Ferry Service Districts.
The governing body of a public transportation benefit area (PTBA) located in certain counties that border western Puget Sound, which is currently only Kitsap Transit, may establish one or more passenger-only ferry (POF) service districts (Districts) within the boundaries of the PTBA. The boundaries of a District may include all or a portion of a city or town, if the portion to be included is within the PTBA's boundaries.
A District is considered an independent taxing authority, and is governed by the existing governing body of the PTBA that creates the District. A District is authorized to establish, finance, and provide POF service. The District also has specific authority to enter into contracts for POF service, public-private partnerships, design-build or general contractor/construction management, and other alternative procurement processes. A District may also issue certain general obligation and revenue bonds.
Prior to implementing POF service, a District must develop a POF investment plan that contains specific elements. In order to provide POF service, a majority of the voters in the District must approve the POF investment plan and the proposed taxes as part of a single vote. The District must contract with the Department of Revenue for collection of any sales and use tax, and may contract with other appropriate entities for the administration and collection of other taxes and charges.
A District may collect the following revenues for the purpose of implementing the POF investment plan:
In addition to PTBAs, the following entities, so long as they border or contain a navigable body of water, are authorized to establish one or more Districts within their boundaries:
The members of the governing body of the entity creating the District constitute the governing body of the District.
The substitute bill removes the Local POF Account, the allowance for that account to retain its earnings, and the Local POF Grant Program. The substitute bill also makes various technical changes to conform with the removal of these items.
(In support) House Bill 1923, the Mosquito Fleet Act, will restore reliable ferry service and get boats back on the water faster and cheaper. Lessons from Puget Sound's maritime history and heritage can provide guidance to a healthier, more prosperous, and more connected future.
Hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians count on the ferries. As for economic opportunity, they count on the ferries for educational pathways, and they count on the ferries for a healthcare lifeline.
Washington is entering year six of Washington State Ferries (WSF) service cuts and cancellations, and folks, both in Kitsap and around Puget Sound are missing work, missing school, and missing medical appointments. Small businesses are shuttering, folks are missing rent, and they're missing mortgage payments, as a result.
To be clear, WSF crews are working around the clock, doing everything they can to get boats back in service, master machinist, Chris Draper, terminal attendant, Randy Zellers, and others, do remarkable work as the backbone of our fleet
The Legislature must find ways to move as fast as it can. When faced with a crisis, act like it, and this crisis should be met with the focused urgency that it demands.
This legislation, the Mosquito Fleet Act, is the fastest and cheapest way to put new boats on the water, to provide relief to neighbors in need, to bolster the maritime workforce, and to prepare Washington for the World Cup stage at the upcoming FIFA World Cup.
Neighbors in Kitsap have seen the benefits of POFs with Kitsap Transit fast ferries. When the Kingston, Edmonds, and Bremerton runs to Seattle were cut to one boat service, POF could step up. This legislation would authorize the creation of passenger-only routes across Puget Sound and across the State.
The aim is to help neighbors all across Washington. Whether that's in the San Juans, in Whidbey, Vashon, Tacoma, or Seattle, and this legislation also opens the aperture beyond just Puget Sound. Passenger-only ferries can benefit neighbors in Gray's Harbor, connecting Ocean Shores and Westport, or neighbors along Lake Washington, connecting Bellevue and the University of Washington, or along the Columbia River, helping to connect folks from Vancouver, and then tourists in Portland to some of the attractions, wineries and otherwise, along the Columbia River.
This bill helps respond to this moment in the most expeditious and cost-effective manner.
Ferry disruptions affect small business owners, downtown and chamber professionals, nurses and healthcare professionals, school board directors, parents and grandparents, firefighters and emergency response planners, bicycle advocates, environmentalists, city council members and mayors, port commissioners, county commissioners, and labor leaders. Reliable ferry service can make a difference for communities in need and investing in POF can put boats back on the water faster and cheaper, taking lessons from Washington's maritime history and heritage to build a more connected, healthier, and prosperous future for everyone. Ferries can be fixed.
A strategy that further imperils the endangered orca, is not the intention here. New developments for tracking orcas ensure that everything that can be done is done. One amendment will ensure that this is not a loophole for groups to get around whale watching requirements and the distances required in the future. New technologies, ranging from more hydrodynamic hulls that create less noise, disruption, and new propeller technology can help mitigate some potential negative impacts.
History is becoming the future, and revitalizing the historic mosquito fleet can connect communities all across the Puget Sound, where people can not only have easier access to work and healthcare and childcare, but easily visit other cities, cities like Bremerton, where they can come, spend time, and hopefully some money.
It's difficult to find a public transportation service that is entirely funded by fares. Every public transportation service has government subsidies, but those subsidies pay for themselves.
Moving people moves our economy, it removes barriers to health care, and it reduces isolation and creates community ridership for midday service. Vashon to downtown has been strong since its launch in July of last year. Marine travelers on Vashon and across the region are ready for green, efficient, and most of all reliable water taxi service.
There should be ferry system expansion, but those who use bikes on the other side of the water must have a safe place for a bike to be able to be stored on the boat.
It all boils down to a door-to-door philosophy. Ever since the fifties, the WSF has acted like a bridge to move a car across the water, but the WSF should concentrate on moving people from one door to another door. That requires a transportation system not just on the water, but buses on either side.
Washington State's maritime economy is the most dynamic and most diverse maritime economy in the nation, and it is an economic sector made up almost exclusively of small businesses. The Mosquito Fleet Act allows communities to leverage their own maritime expertise to affect affordable, sustainable, and accessible marine transit solutions. It will also provide underserved and underrepresented urban and rural populations with help in getting marine transit to their communities, transit which will increase mobility and resilience, enhancing economic vitality, social connection, and quality of life to communities around the State.
For too long, Washington has relied upon ferries to be the singular solution to marine highway infrastructure. This bill acknowledges that the state marine transportation system needs to be thought of similarly to land-based systems. One which uses multiple means and modes of transportation to bring secure, reliable, and efficient service.
The Port of Everett is seeking funding to rebuild its commercial dock, in the South Marina. This will be direct support for ferry access and commercial work. It's a nearly a $6 million project, as the dock has exceeded its useful life.
Passenger ferry service is shown to generate an economic value through cost savings on commutes in the region. Kitsap Transit did a study and found that savings for passengers was up to $14.80 per ride. This is a total of $2.1 million in user benefits annually. Additionally, real estate values increased as well.
The ferry system is stretched thin and overworked. Disruptions to this system are costing small businesses and communities sales, revenue, jobs, and tax dollars across multiple sectors, including retail and manufacturing. Every single time a ferry goes down for maintenance, people lose sales and have to cut hours for staff.
Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Washington by a significant margin. If you take the ferry versus the water taxi, water taxis are more efficient. They're faster, more reliable, and they're smaller, so there's less climate pollution.
New York City's fast ferries have been tremendously successful and are still growing. The San Francisco Bay Ferry, it's the same thing, their growth has been tremendous. The number of cars not on the road is phenomenal and growing, so there are lots and lots of examples of how well this will work. It's going to help the air. It's going to help commuters, and it's going to supplement WSF boats, which at best estimate are many, many years before they get back to service, if ever.
After a natural disaster or other emergency, the Washington State Ferry's docks may be damaged, due to landslides or other damage, and the crews may not be able to show up to work, leaving them unable to operate, or the boats may be requisitioned by the State Emergency Management Division for emergency use by denser populations elsewhere in Puget Sound. Having POF boats would tremendously aid in that, especially if the main ferries were gone.
Support this bill, because by empowering more ferries on the water, we're able to save families time and give them back their access to different communities.
This bill is not just a funding bill, but a policy framework that can help ports be part of the game. Many ports, like the Port of Olympia, are countywide governments. Ports are in the business of delivering economic development, and if the intent is to unlock ports as jurisdictional partners, ports can bring land to the table, ports can bring financing tools that are within existing statutory authority, and ports can try to recruit electric hydrofoil ferry manufacturers to their industrial lands. Moving more people without cars is not only good for the environment, but it'll help make more room for freight.
Passenger-only ferries would create vital new transit options, reducing commute times and expanding access to job opportunities throughout our region. Folks would be able to come to work with ease, but also go to concerts, visit friends, maybe catch a FIFA World Cup game, but see their families as well, and get to critical doctor's appointments. A connected region is a healthy one, and POF service is also the fastest way to get new maritime transit capacity on the water.
House Bill 1923 improves public safety by providing redundancy and marine transport to the community. It improves the lives and the safety of Kitsap and Olympic Peninsula residents.
The mosquito fleet also did a lot of north-south routes, and this bill would unlock the ability to do those as well. Des Moines would be a great hub for such routes as the Des Moines Marina which is only a mile from SeaTac Airport as the crow flies, and so many people in Vashon, Olympia, and other places would love to be able to get to the airport with this other choice of transportation.
The Sound to the Olympics multi-use trail starts at the Bainbridge Ferry and continues to the Hood Canal Bridge. This is also a segment of the Great American Rail Trail, the only designated continuous route across the United States. A coalition of three counties, six cities, three tribes, and three nonprofits won a $16 million federal grant to design all of the missing segments from the Bainbridge Ferry to the Pacific Ocean. With important trail gaps closing in the coming years, the counties of Kitsap, Jefferson, and Clallam will be destinations for bike-powered adventure seekers, and alternative foot ferry routes will create economic opportunities for every community on the 200 miles of route.
Reliable ferry service is vital to communities. It's not a Bainbridge thing or a San Juan thing or a way for the privileged few to get to their summer homes. Collective economic success depends on goods, services, and people being able to move freely around the state, and the reality is that new boats are years away. Despite the dedicated efforts of the WSF and the marked improvements we have seen, Bainbridge Island is dependent on the ferry system to access the healthcare system. In these times of polarization and division, push forward with bold ideas and innovation that bring people together, while giving a nod to our past.
The bill is very important to Kitsap County, because it will allow it to expand the existing passenger ferry system. The passenger ferry system provides access for underserved areas. It provides road congestion relief. It provides economic growth in smaller communities and, somewhat uniquely in Kitsap County, it provides national security considerations.
Small independent counties cannot afford to run and operate a sustainable, independent ferry system without the assistance of the federal and state government, but that's not their responsibility. San Juan County was promised a level of service, and it lost at least 127 inter-island ferry routes by July of this year.
This bill recruits new citizen advocates going forward. The local ferry districts will have to reach across the aisle and across the Cascades, in order to work with others, to recognize local needs and work together, and to ensure that each are successful in continuing this good work.
This bill creates an ability to accommodate growth by making outlying communities more commutable.
(Opposed) This bill contains no provisions to protect the endangered Southern Resident orcas. This fleet will operate in their core and critical habitat in the San Juan Islands and in Central Puget Sound. Noise and disturbance have been reduced around these whales to the point that they are returning.
This bill will create chaos for these whales. Provisions should be added to safeguard the Southern Resident orcas, at a minimum, that include establishing a process and an oversight committee to manage the growth of this sector, to reduce its impacts on the Southern Resident orcas. Of special concern are how many routes that are running in San Juan Islands in the summer and in Central Puget Sound during the winter.
Fees should be added to support the Department of Fish and Wildlife's marine patrols and all vessel operators should receive training, to know when Southern Resident orcas are around and how to avoid them at sea. The population is here, and whether they survive or thrive into adulthood, is up to everyone now. That's the lens through which to view any project that increases noise and disturbance on Puget Sound.
(Other) Northwest Washington communities have expressed a high level of interest in developing a regional POF system. The region not only has a developed marine industry capable of manufacturing and servicing a robust POF fleet, but of the over 10,000 individuals who responded to the Puget Sound POF study, over half of them were collected from Whatcom County residents. A robust POF system would help connect many tradespeople and healthcare workers whom Whatcom County and the San Juan Islands rely on.
The state's waterways have been utilized by local tribes to connect with their communities since time immemorial, a robust North Sound or Salish Sea passenger. A POF system would not only provide the opportunity to use local tribes' extensive knowledge of how to respectfully navigate the state's waterways, but it also gives an opportunity to empower and uplift local tribal communities by giving their displaced fishers opportunities.
(In support) Representative Greg Nance, prime sponsor; Jeff Coughlin; Thomas Bridge; Amy Drayer, Islanders for Ferry Action; Dianne Iverson; dean enell, Whidbey Climate Action; Peter Philips, US; Councilmember Justin Paulsen; Glen Bachman, Port of Everett; John Carson, Bainbridge Island Downtown Association; Kevin Jones; Paul Crow; Vicky de Monterey Richou, VashonBePrepared; Evan Saint Clair; Alexis Mercedes Rinck, City of Seattle; Jasmine Vasavada, Port of Olympia Commission President; Ashley-Nichole Holland, Pier 48 Community Coalition; Anthony Ives, Kitsap Community Resources; Alex McCracken, Kitsap County Firefighters; Leslie Schneider, Bainbridge Island City Council member; Anthony Hemstad, City of Des Moines, Legislative Advocate + Port of Olympia Econ Devel Committee Chair (volunteer); Ashley Mathews, City of Bainbridge Island; Tom McBride, Kitsap County; Rick Hughes, Ray's Pharmacy - Orcas Island, WA; Waylon Robert, Sailors' Union of the Pacific; Jared Moravec, Bainbridge Island Fire Department; Jeremy Une; Curt Gordon, Port of South Whidbey, Commissioner; Eric ffitch, Washington Public Ports Association; John Kydd; Bobbie Moore; and Walt Elliott.
Janet St Clair and Peter Philips.