Oh, quit your whining. When it comes to ferry funding, Miss Snippy and all the others who call the Kitsap Peninsula home are sick to death of the rest of you acting like a bunch of selfish two-year-olds. A recent KIRO radio “open comment” line on the topic confirmed what residents of the peninsula have always suspected: the rest of the state thinks we’re a bunch of isolationist oddballs who deserve to leave our “lifestyle” only if we can row.
Well, guess what? Anywhere you live in Washington State, your chosen lifestyle is supported by the Puget Sound. The Port of Seattle alone creates more than 190,000 jobs and generates over $17 billion in revenue for businesses which, in turn, pay cargo-loads of taxes. If you’re a resident of the Evergreen State, your food, clothing, and consumer goods most likely came through a Washington port. Communities up and down the Sound were founded on fishing and logging and shipping.
Yes, indeedy … the Puget Sound made this area what it is. So if you landlubbers balk at contributing to the cost of an essential part of our state’s transportation system such as ferry boats, maybe you shouldn’t live in a state with a big ol’ waterway. Puget Sound is the lifeblood of our state, but it also necessitates the movement of people and cars across that golden water. Miss Snippy has a message for you mainlanders: We don’t want to pay for your freeways and bridges. How much do you suppose it costs to keep the mountain passes open? Can you say “Alaskan Way deep bore tunnel”? No matter where each of us must travel, we rely on our fellow citizens to subsidize our “lifestyle choice.” This small-mindedness is just another version of the “I-don’t-have-kids-so-why-should-I-pay-for-schools?” mentality.
Across the state, roads are not tolled; neither are bridges. Oh, wait, one major bridge is tolled: the one that leads to the Kitsap Peninsula. The state has, however, promised to begin tolling the 520 Floating Bridge prior to construction of a new one. Of course, this is the same state that passed a nickel-per-gallon gas tax in 2003, from which $298 million was earmarked for the construction of four new ferries. Six years hence, these promised ferries have become the “Flying Dutchman Line” – hard to see and even harder to ride – because they don’t exist. Where did our new fleet go? Where did our money go? Straight to Davy Jones’s locker, it appears.
No public transit system demands fares that cover 100 percent of operating costs, but this is the goal of our Transportation Commission – and the Kingston run has already achieved it. Miss Snippy was aghast, on a recent trip to New Orleans, to ride the ferry across the Mississippi River and back … for free. Cars cost a whole dollar, round-trip. In fact, Washington State Ferries isn’t a public transit agency at all; by law the boats are part of our state highway system. Nowhere else in the state, except the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, are motorists expected to subsidize such a high percentage of their transportation route.
Perhaps you landlocked Washingtonians view ferries as the private yachts of a privileged few. Let me tell you, if Miss Snippy had a yacht, the staff would not be swabbing the tables with the same slimy mop that just finished the floor (we wish we were making this up). Don’t get Miss Snippy started on ferry service and ferry unions.
We are tired of being treated like the flatulent dog of the transportation system. We are tired of the state demanding fiscal responsibility only when it comes to peninsula and island dwellers. If we here in Kingston can put up with the traffic, you can help pay for the boats.
Wendy Tweten and her alter-ego Miss Snippy love to ride the ferry…especially when it brings them back home to Kingston. Find more snippy bits at www.wendytweten.com.
