OLYMPIA [By: Cassie Diamond] – As ferry-dependent Washingtonians continue to miss work, school and doctors appointments due to service disruptions, Rep. Greg Nance, D-Bainbridge Island, is floating a potential solution now under consideration by the Senate.
House Bill 1923, also known as the Mosquito Fleet Act, would permit any county, city, transit agency or port district bordering Puget Sound or Grays Harbor to establish their own passenger-only ferry service.
The measure would give local governments access to revenue-generating tools such as a dedicated sales tax, parking taxes, passenger tolls, and the ability to lease advertising space to fund those services.
While the bill does not request state funding for additional vessels, Nance noted he may come back to the Legislature in a year or two to ask for such funding if early data indicates there is a demand.
Nance said the legislation is named after the mosquito fleet, an armada of private steamboats that transported passengers and goods across Puget Sound between the 1880s and 1920s.
“I think there’s a lot we can learn from Washington’s maritime history and heritage as we look to create a more connected future,” he said.
Nance said the bill would increase connections by establishing new routes and restoring old ones, such as a 103-year-old route between Sidney, British Columbia, and Anacortes that was suspended in 2020.
Under current law, only certain local entities such as King County and Kitsap Transit are allowed to operate passenger-only ferry services.
Nance explained this restriction is a result of the state wanting to encourage residents to ride the Washington State Ferries (WSF) by eliminating competition from private operators or local governments.
But as WSF’s ferry fleet has aged, service disruptions have become increasingly common. To remedy this, WSF is expected to receive three new hybrid electric ferries from the Florida-based Eastern Shipbuilding Group starting in 2030.
While Nance emphasized that he believes WSF is “extremely important” to the health and future of Washington’s ferry-served communities, the state needs reliable ferry service now.
“We’ve gotten so used to just hunting things years into the distance, and that’s not fair for neighbors who are missing chemotherapy, small business leaders who are missing payroll, kids who are missing class,” he said. “We’ve got to do better.”
Evan Perrollaz, the mayor of Friday Harbor, testified in strong support of the bill, pointing to the dire effects ferry delays have on his island community’s local economy and access to services.
“When the boats don’t run, everything stops for us,” he said. “[HB 1923] creates a framework for meaningful planning, funding and operational collaboration … so we can build resilience in this system that is currently simply too fragile.”
According to Nance, the Mosquito Fleet Act would also be a major boon for Washington’s shipbuilding industry, which he claims the state has failed to properly support.
Nance said he wants new passenger-only ferries to be built by the “world-class shipyards” available to the state right in Puget Sound.
Gavin Higgins, CEO of the Washington-based Nichols Brothers Boat Builders and Everett Ship Repair, highlighted the experience Nichols Brothers has with building passenger-only ferries, noting that these vessels are relatively quick and cost effective to make.
“Build here, invest here and grow here,” he said. “Made in Washington jobs and a dependable ferry system: That’s important to us, and it must be important to the community, too.”
While there is no requirement in the measure mandating new passenger-only ferries be built in Washington, Nance said he is open to an amendment that would add such language.
However, Donna Sandstrom, founder and executive director of The Whale Trail, raised concerns about the policy’s impact on the southern resident orcas. Ferries produce underwater noise that interfere with the clicks orcas use to hunt and communicate, and can even cause fatal collisions.
“While I’m incredibly empathetic and sensitive to the human needs that are pushing the need for these ferries,” she said, “they must be balanced with the need to protect these endangered whales who also share our waters.”
Nance acknowledged these concerns, and said he would welcome an amendment with stronger language to protect the southern resident orcas.
This year marks the second time the proposal has gone before the Senate Transportation Committee for a public hearing.
The measure was introduced during last year’s session and passed the House with bipartisan support but died after the Senate Transportation Committee failed to hold a vote on the bill before the cutoff date.
“I think part of this is the Senate hasn’t had the same urgency regarding restoring reliable ferry service that the House of Representatives has,” Nance said. “I think the Senate said we’re okay to wait until the 2030s to restore reliable ferry access.”
To avoid a repeat of last year, Nance said he wants to further highlight the urgency of the problem and widespread support for the policy.
“I think a really important piece of the puzzle is [that] this isn’t just Greg Nance’s idea,” he said. “It’s an idea that our entire ferry-served communities need to address their transportation issues.”
If the legislation were to pass this session, it would authorize communities to take the measure to November’s ballot for their voters to decide if they support the establishment of a passenger ferry service in their jurisdiction.
Nance said these services could come online as early as 2027. He pointed to an example from his home of Kitsap County, where passenger-only ferry service was authorized by voters in November 2016 and launched eight months later in July 2017.
HB 1923 received a public hearing in the Senate Transportation Committee Feb. 27 and is scheduled for an executive session March 2. Whether the committee decides to hold a vote on the bill or not will determine if it stays afloat this session.
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Author: Washington State Journal
