||| FROM CNL3 |||
Retired Washington State Ferries’ Captain Ken Burtness has been thinking about going public with his worries about the state of the WSF fleet for the past year.
“(My) main goal is to get the Legislature to understand that they have to fund new boats, that they cannot continue the pattern of the last 27 years and keep putting it off.”
“There was never a shortage of boats and 11 new boats were built between 1970 and 1999. In the San Juans there was a steady increase in the level of service through all those years to meet increasing demand.”
**If you are reading theOrcasonian for free, thank your fellow islanders. If you would like to support theOrcasonian CLICK HERE to set your modestly-priced, voluntary subscription. Otherwise, no worries; we’re happy to share with you.**
This is exactly the expected shift from growth spending to defensive (maintenance) spending.
Growth spending builds new capacity; defensive spending simply keeps existing systems functioning. Meanwhile the growth spending raised costs by causing forest degradation, water scarcity, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, etc., all leading to even more defensive spending.
There’s no profit in defensive spending. So budgets shrink, and then even defensive spending becomes difficult.
And then what happens?!
The sooner we recognize that the second half of the 20th century was an anomaly and will never be repeated (after all, we took most of what there is to take), the sooner we can face reality.
The Washington State budget has increased 116 percent in the last ten years, far outpacing inflation and population growth. I would hardly consider that ‘defensive spending’, whatever that means. Maybe we should start looking at the failure of our state institutions under decades of one party rule and admitting they are horribly misguidesd, through good intentions, waste, and fraud.
Foo, “defensive” spending means “maintenance” spending… meaning, paying to maintain and replace the infrastructure that is starting to fail because it’s reached end of life. This is often extremely expensive, and because it brings in no new revenue (replacing things isn’t expanding, which is growth, which is what is required to keep the economy afloat), it doesn’t contribute to the overall economy in the same ways as growth spending does. Obviously it helps businesses, helps people get to work and so on, but it’s not as lucrative as expansion (more business, more people, etc.). Because of debt, our economy requires growth just to stay even!
Why does WSF need 26 ferries?
WSF’s operate 10 routes, but currently only 9 (Anacortes to Sidney route restored maybe by 2030). During the Covid crisis when they lost crew personnel because they refused to be vaccinated and age/retirements compounded their screw staffing problem, they operated the 9 routes with 15 ferries. Today, they are operating 17 ferries. And if they add one additional ferry to the Seattle-Bremerton route and one to the Coupeville-Port Townsend route, they will be at 19 … their full summer operations number. That number goes to 20 if and when they restore the Anacortes to Sidney route. So the question is do they need 6 additional ferries in some form of overhaul or maintenance and fleet backup? As a baseline, WSF currently now has 21 ferries.
An observation.
When WSF purchased the ferry system in 1951, the original WSDOT plan was to construct a bridges between Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth. In 1959, the planned bridge was not funded by the state legislature.. Again in 1992, Vashon Island residents objected to the bridge concept, and that bridge plan was withdrawn. Vashon has roughly 12,000 residents, and 3 ferries serve that route, 4 if the Ruston-Tahlequah route is included. Bridges are expensive, but they can be tolled and tens of thousands of hours of waiting in ferries lines and ferry crew and terminal costs could be eliminated if that original bridge plan was constructed. Given the area growth and benefit of bridges, a cost/benefit study of at east the relatively short ferry runs (Mukilteo-Clinton is another short passage example) should be made before the state legislature agrees to a “26 ferries needed” plan is financed.
Bridges are not one-time expenses. They also require extensive maintenance and upkeep. Look at what’s going on with the bridge between Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA. That’s not a particularly long bridge compared to the ones being discussed here but the cost is absolutely astronomical.
Of additional significance in the Vashon area is the substantial seismic risk. This can be engineered around, but at what cost?
Clearly the ferry system is not working, but bridges probably would’t fix anything. Remember the West Seattle bridge debacle a few years ago?
Sometimes people just need to step back and accept that we live in an imperfect world instead of pushing for their preferred “magic band-aid.” If you want to live on an island, just roll with the punches and accept that life will be a little harder sometimes.