Aground: state's passenger ferries

A TASK force convenes today to finalize recommendations on how the state should handle passenger-only ferry service. It's hard not to be cynical about the results.

Washington State Ferries, its commuters and the state taxpayers who subsidize it need a once-and-for-all prescription. But the task force seems only to have tossed the hot potato to its 18 members — a group of the same special interests that have made this issue all but unresolvable for almost 15 years. News reports suggest, and several committee members concede, that strong diverging opinions have made a consensus report with a single vision unlikely. Instead, the report will outline criteria the Legislature should consider in financial decisions about passenger-only service.

It might have dueling alternatives. Or the main report might support state domination of passenger-only ferry service. But if it does, a "minority report" supporting public-private partnerships will also be issued.

Déjà vu?

That was precisely the difference between the chairs of the state Legislature's House and Senate transportation committees.

Rep. Ed Murray, D- Seattle, supported expanded passenger-only ferry service by adding a stop in Southworth to the Seattle-Vashon run. Ferry officials impressively won a concession from unions that they would permit split shifts to make it possible.

But Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, said the state ought to get out of the way of private companies that wanted to provide the service. She wanted to explore public-private partnerships — a view this editorial page continues to support.

With gas-tax legislation taking priority, the compromise was to send the question of passenger-only ferry service to a task force.

The task force's job was "to study the most reliable and cost-effective means of providing passenger-only ferry service." But a few task force members, who have been meeting frequently since September, say comprehensive financial analysis has not been the group's focus. And the topic is politically sensitive because private companies likely would pay lower wages than does Washington State Ferries.

Ideally, the task force's report would be an innovative, artfully concocted compromise. But given the discord, task-force members seem about to toss the potato back to the Legislature.

When they meet today, they should remember their original mission and the purpose of the ferry system — to get people from place to place with the lowest subsidy from state taxpayers.