PORT TOWNSEND — Both the House and Senate transportation budget proposals submitted this week place the MV Salish on the Port Townsend-Coupeville route.
“We did it,” said Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, who as chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee had led a campaign to keep the boat in place as originally planned.
“We promised the people on the Port Townsend-Coupeville route they would get two boats, and they are going to get two boats,” Haugen said.
“It’s a done deal.”
Senate lawmakers unveiled Tuesday their nearly $9 billion transportation budget proposal for the next two years. The House announced its $8.9 billion budget plan Monday.
Lawmakers will now negotiate all proposals before voting on a final package.
The House and Senate will negotiate different line items, but the Salish remaining on the Port Townsend-Coupeville route is not in dispute, Haugen said.
Moving the 64-car Salish to another route had been raised as a cost-cutting measure for the state ferries system, which faces a nearly $900 million budget deficit over the next 10 years, but the final cuts were made in other areas, such as cutting service to lower-traffic routes.
The Salish is due to be completed in May and will be put into service after sea trials this summer, said Marta Coursey, Washington State Ferries spokeswoman.
It would join the identically configured MV Chetzemoka, which began sailing the Port Townsend-Coupeville route in November.
“This is great news,” said Tim Caldwell, Port Townsend Ferry Advisory Board chairman.
“During the peak season, we will get a ferry leaving every 45 minutes instead of every hour and a half, giving us a level of ferry service that we haven’t had for five years.”
The Senate proposal differs slightly from the House plan in its ferry budget.
The Senate’s would cut services to lower-traffic routes by $4 million, compared to the House’s $3.1 million, and impose a 2.5 percent annual fare increase for the next two years.
The House proposes a one-time 5 percent increase this year in addition to the 2.5 percent annual rate hike.
Haugen said they left it up to the ferry commission to decide to add a fuel surcharge on top of the 2.5 percent increase; the budget as it stands assumes some revenue gain from a fuel surcharge.
House lawmakers chose to add the 5 percent increase instead of a fuel surcharge, because they said ferry riders wanted rates to be predictable and not subject to the rise and fall of fuel costs.
The Senate’s budget also assumes passage of a bill that would create a new account dedicated to building or buying new ferries, and tacks on a 25-cent surcharge to every ferry fare that would go into that account.
In 2007, the Port Townsend-Coupeville route lost the Steel Electric ferries, which were determined to be unsafe, after they had provided two-boat service for many years.
The state ferries system leased the Steilacoom II from Pierce County to operate as the only boat on the route. The Chetzemoka now handle the route alone.
In March, Port Townsend Mayor Michelle Sandoval revealed that the ferry system considered discontinuing the route entirely, and that the city felt lucky to get one new boat.
“It is really nice to finally get some good news,” she said Tuesday.
Sandoval said that after Port Townsend lobbied tirelessly for the Chetzemoka, efforts on behalf of the Salish were left to Haugen and the Whidbey Island Ferry Board.
“It’s great that they came through with this,” she said.
Haugen also credited her counterpart in the House, Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island.
The Senate budget includes $4.87 million for 700 projects around the state — the most costly being the state Highway 520 floating bridge and the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacements, both in Seattle — and mostly mirrors a House proposal.
Both proposals cite declining gas tax collections, which is imposed on a per-gallon basis, as the cause for falling revenue. The Senate proposal calls for a $100 fee from electric car owners every time they renew their tabs to make up for lost gas tax revenue from those drivers.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.