Over the years, I’ve heard two recurring themes about Bremerton. The first was that the powerful business elite precipitated Bremerton’s decline by forcing the Kitsap Mall to move to Silverdale, and the second was how the city was on the verge of a renaissance, if only we had (or could regain) a taxpayer-funded fast ferry to Seattle.

Leaving aside for a moment the questionable morality of having the Kitsap residences who can least afford it (sales tax being the most regressive of taxes, disproportionately impacting the poor) subsidize those who are commuting to Seattle, who really benefits from a fast ferry?

An article in the Feb. 5 Kitsap Sun says it all: “Powerful backers pushing fast ferry.”

It’s the very wealthy and their politician friends who stand to gain the most from this proposal (just as they benefited from condo projects that brought the housing authority close to insolvency, tunnels and other traffic “improvement” projects that create gridlock and keep cars out of downtown, and a taxpayer funded marina and convention center that still lose money), not the average resident of Kitsap County.

County Commissioner Ed Wolfe says that he believes that the voters rejected a ferry tax because the benefits to the entire county, not just the ferry commuters, weren’t well explained.

No, Commissioner Wolfe, the voters rejected a ferry tax twice before because they knew that a fast ferry to Seattle would benefit only the few and be an ever-increasing burden on the majority by raising our costs for goods and services, creating more competition for available housing and adding to our traffic congestion.

We’ve learned over the years that when someone starts talking about economic benefit “trickling down,” what they usually mean is that the people are going to be urinated upon.

— Charles Ely,
Bremerton.