By Mike Wayte

The June 4 issue of the Herald published an invitation to a TOWN HALL meeting on the King County Water Taxi and King County Ferry District. I was mildly interested until I read the Special to the Seattle Times on meeting day (“County should rethink water-taxi takeover”, June 9). Looked like another case of an expensive neat idea at a time when the county is short of money.

I downloaded the KING COUNTY FERRY DISTRICT 2010 Annual Operating and Capital Budget Summary and took a look.
REVENUE: $7,353,000; TOTAL EXPENDITURES: $15,710,000.

So the county is going to operate at a loss of $8.357 Million for 2010. But wait, there’s more!
A look at the REVENUE shows that Fares and Advertising bring in $1.132 Million, with the rest of the Revenue made up of: Property Tax - $1.183 Million; State Forest Timber Sales - $128 Thousand; Interest Income - $210 Thousand; Federal Grants - $3 Million; State Grants - $1.7 Million. Can you spell taxpayer subsidies?

A look at the EXPENSES reveals Marketing, Management/Support and District Management costs slightly over $1.7 Million, more than the combined income from fares and advertising.

Hardly a day goes by that we don’t hear about the fiscal problems of all the various government entities, whether it is the Feds, State, County or City. The “temporary” taxes on candy, bottled water, cigarettes, etc. just kicked in. The county wants to raise our Property taxes, but is having a hard time figuring out how to do it legally. How about a sales tax increase?

In the mean time we have the King County Ferry District providing a “service” that duplicates existing services. I occasionally ride the 37 Bus to down town. I see people get off the bus to ride the ferry. Since the boat wasn’t there on Thursday when the bus went by I can only assume I made it downtown before the boat riders did. I guess people weren’t in as big a hurry to get to their appointments as I was. As for the Vashon ferry, I believe people can ride the car ferries and catch a bus on Fauntleroy Ave. While killing the KING COUNTY FERRY DISTRICT won’t solve King County’s problem, it will reduce the size of it.

Do we really need a water taxi in view of other, more pressing needs?