By Chris Grygiel
Seattle Post Intelligencer
The state attorney general’s office says ferry fare increases approved last month are legal, despite the passage of a Tim Eyman initiative that requires the Legislature to pass fee increases.
Earlier this week, Attorney General Rob McKenna’s attorneys said in a non-binding, informal opinion that the Transportation Commission couldn’t raise ferry fares or impose or raise tolls without a vote of the Legislature because voters approved Initiative 1053. But Bryce Brown, senior assistant attorney general, on Wednesday sent a memo to the the state Department of Transportation and the Transportation Commission, stating that because the ferry fares were approved before I-1053 became effective on Dec. 2, those hikes legally permissible.
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The ferry budget lost 20 percent of its operating funding when voters approved an Eyman initiative cutting car license fees in 1999. Courts struck that measure down, but then the Legislature approved the reduced license fees.
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/432228_ferries22.html
