Candidates Pit Ferries Against Buses in King County - KUOW News

Mass transit was looking good this weekend as the Central Link light rail line opened between Seattle and Tukwila. But the near future for bus service in King County is not so festive. Service cuts are in the works. This has sparked a fierce debate in the race for King County Executive. Some candidates want to redirect money for passenger ferries into the ailing bus system instead.

When they passed the Transit Now levy in 2005, voters in King County agreed to pay higher sales taxes to improve their bus service. But when the recession hit, those voters quit buying and revenue plummeted. King County Executive Kurt Triplett says Metro Transit faces a $170 million gap over the next two years. That means service cuts are imminent.

Triplett: "The key question, though, is where do you make those cuts. And this is where the region could end up in literally a civil war over transit service. And I'm going to try to propose something that works."

Triplett wants to freeze any expansion of Metro Transit, and cut service by 10 percent.

Triplett: "I want to apply that 10 percent cut across all routes, rather than picking winners and losers."

The cuts could be bigger — Triplett's plan assumes the King County Metropolitan Council will approve either a property tax hike or a fare increase.

The candidates for Triplett's county executive job haven't talked much about where to cut. They have said they don't like the current formula that requires almost all new bus service to be outside Seattle. But that doesn't mean they're taking Seattle's side.

Hutchison: "County government is very Seattle–centric. One of the reasons is they're located right there in downtown Seattle."

In a recent candidate debate, Susan Hutchison said that's why Seattle ended up with the lion's share of Metro service. All the candidates agree that Metro must bring more service to other cities in King County. Candidate Ross Hunter, a state legislator from Medina, says even if the bus formula is axed, East and South King County will keep pressing for more equity.

Hunter: "Most of the growth has occurred there and most of the growth is going to occur there so you're going to see increasing demand outside the city for routes. Now this of course is about how we expand service and we're not talking about expanding service in the near term, we're talking about cutting service."

Three candidates including Hunter say Metro's problems should take precedence over plans to expand the passenger ferry service.

Candidate and state senator Fred Jarrett called for halting the expansion recently at Seattle's public boat landing. Jarrett says he'd continue the existing passenger ferry service, but do away with plans for routes on Lake Washington and Puget Sound. Jarrett says that would mean an additional $15 million for buses.

Jarrett: "I don't know how I can go down to Burien or Bellevue or Federal Way or Bellevue or Auburn and say we're going to raise your taxes to be able to put new services on Puget Sound and oh by the way we're going to cut the routes that you're currently using, that just doesn't make sense."

Hutchison also says the new service isn't needed.

Hutchison: "There are thousands of people who have boats on Lake Washington and they could easily implement their own little mosquito fleet if it were feasible. It's not."

The passenger ferry issue is one of the clearest divisions in the race for King County Executive — both candidates who currently serve on the King County Metropolitan Council support studying the expansion. Larry Phillips says his support is conditional.

Phillips: "Every year what we see are increasing use of the water taxi in a way in which it's becoming a staple of our community and well used. The other routes that we've looked for we have not made a commitment that we're going to do them, what we've looked at is potential demonstration routes and we're going to find out whether they make sense. If they don't, I would be the first person to say we're out of that business."

And Dow Constantine, who chairs the ferry board, agrees that the agency won't roll out any new service until it's tested.

Constantine: "Compared to buses, there are places where buses are going to work best, where trains are going to work best, and there are a few places in this county with the odd geography and being surrounded by water, where boats are going to be the best options for transit."

He celebrated the $2 million in federal funds King County will receive for a new passenger ferry. It will serve the existing route between downtown and West Seattle. Meanwhile Fred Jarrett wants the county to suspend its hiring of a ferry system manager. The salary budgeted for that job is $135,000 per year.

I'm Amy Radil, KUOW News.

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