Democratic WA legislators' ferry feud gets us nowhere

Fellow ferry commuters, I've got a question. Would you prefer, in your frequent crisscrossing of our inland saltwater, a return to the clockwork reliability of the jumbo ferry service of old - or would you be on board to try something new and nimbler?

Washington State Ferries' increasingly frail fleet of 21 vessels plies the Salish Sea 365 days of the year, often without a backup boat and with most vessels millions of dollars behind on deferred maintenance. The oldest entered service in 1959, before most Americans had color television. But a complete replenishment of roll-on, roll-off ferries is years and billions of dollars away - assuming state lawmakers agree to fund it all.

What if, as the risk of boat breakdowns rises, you could hop on a smaller, carless vessel that gets you from A to B faster? Would you take that ride - even if it meant reducing your route's service of car-carrying green-and-white jumbo boats?

That's the question at the heart of a curious ferry feud between two state lawmakers - Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, and Rep. Greg Nance, D-Bainbridge Island. In a recent Kitsap Sun op-ed, Nance accused Liias, chair of the Senate's transportation committee, of sabotaging a bill to give local communities the latitude to start their own passenger ferry service.

You read that right - they're both Democrats, each laser-focused on the state's waterborne transit future. But if politics is the art of the possible, their spat is over what they each believe is achievable - and what isn't.

The compromise their quarrel cost commuters this year is that they could have maintained an unwavering financial commitment to rebuilding the state system while also enabling innovative passenger ferry solutions in local communities.

Nance sailed into Olympia as a lawmaker in 2023 with a bountiful appetite to right the ferry system. We both happen to live on the Kitsap Peninsula and watched as once-reliable ferry service crumbled under the mismanagement of previous Gov. Jay Inslee and a generation of legislators. So I understand Nance's passion around immediacy - he doesn't think commuters can wait a decade for enough new roll-on, roll-off ferries. A smaller boat in the water is better than no boat at all, he reasons.

Nance amassed a grassroots coalition of riders, city council members, shipbuilders and more to his cause. Taking a page from Puget Sound history, Nance introduced the Mosquito Fleet Act last year to empower ports and other local governments to float their own passenger ferry routes - an idea The Seattle Times editorial board endorsed. The bill passed the House twice, with wide bipartisan majorities.

Entering the Senate, the bill crashed into Liias, a shrewd 18-year veteran legislator and chairman of that chamber's transportation committee. He admits to killing Nance's bill a year ago and making significant alterations to it this year, including preventing some local jurisdictions from funding new passenger ferries with sales taxes.

For that, Nance, went full J'Accuse! on his fellow Democrat, alleging a culture of retaliation in which fellow caucus members were afraid to speak against Liias for fear he'd withhold their district's transportation funding. In his defense, Liias told me he wished Nance had picked up a phone and called him before resorting to a weaponized op-ed.

Liias sees the Mosquito Fleet Act as a distraction - one that could prevent an antiquated state ferry fleet from the revitalization it so desperately needs. He believes that starting new ferry routes will (A) eventually lead more communities to seek state funding the budget cannot support and (B) will cannibalize existing ferry service.

He's got a point. There are trade-offs in Nance's plan. Which comes back to you, the ferry commuter.

First, legislators, particularly those far from ferry routes, will run out of patience and willingness to continue throwing money at a ferry problem that doesn't serve their constituents directly.

Second, lawmakers will likely be forced to consider permanent service reductions on some routes unless a steady stream of new jumbos starts streaming into Puget Sound. The first new vessel, soon to be under construction at a Florida shipyard, won't sail until at least 2030. And each runs about $400 million a pop. The Legislature so far has funded just three.

Nance believes service reductions might be inevitable for certain routes. He sees Bremerton, where I live, as a place residents would favor increased passenger ferry service - even if it meant cutting car ferry service. Such boats would arrive sooner, their crews would be smaller and service delivery cheaper, he argues.

I wish it were that simple. More than a decade ago, I took on a story with former reporter Ed Friedrich at the Kitsap Sun that examined this very question: Could you eliminate one Seattle-Bremerton car ferry and replace it with more passenger-only ferry service?

Kitsap County is the rare place voters approved a sales tax increase for three routes to Seattle from Kingston, Bremerton and Southworth. But because of wake restrictions on the Bremerton route, its fast ferry, while shortening the journey to 30 minutes, can carry only about 118 passengers. Its specialized hydrofoil zips through Rich Passage, a catamaran that looks like a cross between an Argosy Tours sightseer and a cigarette boat.

Conversely, state ferries like the 1968-built Kaleetan, whose remnant agility can carry 1,195 people but is also old enough to pass as a museum ship, often has excess capacity beyond its weekend and commuter runs.

So on size, Bremerton lacks a Goldilocks boat. But reducing the route to more passenger service today would drastically shortchange the run's overall capacity - at least until a bigger low-wake passenger vessel can be built.

Each state route has its own challenges, but all suffer from an aging fleet prone to breakdowns - replacing them must be priority one. Where Nance's bill can help is where local communities separated by water bond together to create a partnership and finance their own passenger ferry routes. His legislation rightly gives them powers they don't have now.

In the meantime, it's imperative these two lawmakers get back to the negotiating table.

Rep. Nance, keep the fire in your belly for ferries, but recognize an all-of-the-above water transportation strategy has downsides. Legislators and the governor can't, and won't, say yes to funding forever; the Legislature's priority must remain rebuilding the state system.

Sen. Liias, continue your pursuit of the state system's revitalization - but see the light to give genuine leeway to local communities, as Rep. Nance has called for, to set up their own passenger ferries if they're willing to pay their own way.

The 2027 legislative session will pick up on these very questions. Lawmakers balked on a plan this year by Gov. Bob Ferguson to put almost $1 billion into ferry construction. But the transportation committees did fund a $750,000 everything-and-the-kitchen-sink ferry study - including what boats are best to move people across the Salish Sea.

More than anything, Rep. Nance and Sen. Liias, please get your oars rowing in the same direction again. The future of our ferry system depends on it.

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