An hour before a young man from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania attempted to kill Donald Trump, I learned that the ferry I planned to take from downtown Seattle to Bainbridge was behind by more than an hour. “It still hasn’t left Bainbridge,” the ticket person said despondently. I looked at the attendant, then at the time on my phone, and soberly concluded that Nikki McClure‘s 3 pm event at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art was out of my reach. The mess on this side of the bay would certainly be duplicated on the other side.
I decided to change my afternoon plan and visit Pioneer Square, which is across the car-stuffed street from Colman Dock’s new NBBJ-designed terminal. This plan, however, turned out to be as messy as the first because the old neighborhood was packed with out-of-towners heading to a Kenny Chesney concert. When news of the attempted assassination of Mr. Big MAGA reached all of us via social media, I decided to get out of Dodge. “It was just one of dem days.”
Lol. Washington ferries are always delayed because the state fired a ton of unvaccinated workers. But you know what will fix it? Diversity!
How does diversity make ferries run better? Diversity! But how? Diversity! pic.twitter.com/xLSK0Xxril
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) March 2, 2023
But was it really just one of those days? If we go back to the morning of July 13, a good question to ask is: What planet was I on? Certainly not one where you could stop reading a book at 11 am, dress by noon, be at Colman Dock by 1 pm, arrive at Bainbridge by 2 pm, and watch Nikki McClure do her thing at 3 pm. It was naive of me to believe crossing the bay would go like clockwork. I should have known better. A day doesn’t seem to go by without a local news site running a story (“WA ferry workers bear brunt of delayed, angry passengers”) about how unreliable (“Ferry riders frustrated over continuing delays and cancelled routes”) the largest and one of the busiest ferry systems in the US has become. I should have been up on things.
Nevertheless, many reasons have been offered for this sad state of affairs, but in truth, there is only one reason for the present crisis. It’s not the firing of “unvaccinated workers,” or the governor’s plan to pull ferries off of catastrophic fossil fuels and plug them into cleaner energy. It all begins with Tim Eyman generally, his Initiative 695 specifically, and the drivers of Washington State directly. In 1998, 56% of voters decided that no relation existed between taxes and the cost of maintaining the most expensive form of mass transportation, the car. As a consequence, the ferry system, which basically provides floating/motion bridges for automobiles, was dealt a blow from which it has never recovered.
This is a simple fact. The then-“most feared man in Washington state politics” spoke to voters/drivers, and they, for the most part, ate it all up: taxes do nothing but give useless government bureaucrats more cheese than they really need, taxes are unconstitutional, taxes put freedom in a cage, and so on and so on. Once the fact of Initiative 695’s impact is appreciated, we can make the next move, which will throw light on the nature and structure of the society (capitalist) that makes sense of our lives from the cradle to the grave.
Now, I want to take us to Los Angeles, to the “City of Angels” that 10,000 Maniacs hated on in a 1987 tune, to the city the filmmaker Thom Andersen investigated in the excellent documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself. Recall that in Plays Itself, Andersen revealed that the conspiracy at the heart of the movie Chinatown, the evil conspiracy to control the city’s water, had no relationship whatsoever with the historical record. A daughter-fucking rich man did not raw-dog the public. Sorry for being so blunt. Instead, the city’s foundational water issue was, despite a conspiracy, presented to voters in an orderly fashion, and the public voted to fuck over “farmers, ranchers and other residents living in Owens Valley” by directing that region’s river to the city. This is actually what happened with our ferry system. The voters, as with LA’s water system, are at the bottom of this story.
In fact, the usual villains of a scenario of this kind, major corporations, were openly opposed to Tim Eyman’s initiative. Slate, from that year:
One peculiar thing about the Washington tax revolt is that taxes are relatively mild out here. There is no state income tax, property taxes rank 19th (as of 1996), and the average sales tax is about 7.5 percent. So what started as a revolt against an unpopular tax turned into a referendum on disingenuous politicians–and their allies. Microsoft, Boeing, Weyerhaeuser, labor, and virtually every editorial page in the state opposed I-695, portraying it in hyperbolic, apocalyptic colors. The political, corporate, and union establishments put their money where their mouths were, too, dropping $2.1 million to fight the measure, outspending the tax rebels by 10-to-1.
On top of that, the Washington State Supreme Court rejected I-695 after it passed, but a Democratic governor, Gary Locke, resurrected it (“the will of the people”), and made it a reality. Permanent Defense:
Despite opposition from a bipartisan coalition, I-695 easily passed. It was struck down as unconstitutional due to having multiple subjects in early 2000, a decision that was later affirmed by the Washington State Supreme Court. Following the court decision, Governor Gary Locke and the Legislature capitulated to Eyman by repealing the statewide MVET, eviscerating billions in funding for essential public services like Washington State Ferries.
And so it is. And by the looks of things, so it will be again. Voters are again being asked to support, in November, an initiative that would cut an important post-Initiative 695 source of funding for Washington State Ferries. This is Initiative 2117, which would “Prohibit Carbon Tax Credit Trading and Repeal Carbon Cap-and-Invest Program.” It’s also called a “hidden gas tax” by its supporters. Its opponents, which include corporations like Amazon and Microsoft, very well know that the carbon tax is not a gas tax and, more importantly, if the initiative is passed, it will throw Washington State Ferries into more fusion.
What are we to make of this development, and its lack of obvious villains? The same goes for the recent rejection in California of a proposition that would have permitted the state to borrow “$9 billion for water infrastructure improvement.” Clean water for the people was in this proposition; the state suffers “from chronic water scarcity.” Who is the villain here? Certainly not a Noah Cross. Big agriculture (meaning, big business) actually backed the proposition. The answer is found in a theory that needs more attention. Moishe Postone presented it in his book Time, Labor, and Social Domination, which was published not long after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR.
The fact of the matter is that capitalism—not labor or rich people or democracy—is the one and only subject of capitalism. What Postone’s highly theoretical assertion explains is precisely the kind of contradiction that occurred in Washington on November 2, 1999, and will likely occur again on November 5, 2024. True, capitalism benefits the rich (the Noah Crosses of the world) for the most part, but capitalism is successful, is still with us, and will be with us for the foreseeable future, because it’s autonomous and impersonal. It, in the words of Postone, “operates behind the backs of [all] the social actors.” This, as I said at the beginning of the post, is something to really think about.
Except pre pandemic ferries were routinely on time (data going back to 2017):
https://wsdot.wa.gov/travel/washington-state-ferries/about-us/ferries-accountability-and-service-data/time-performance-reports
The truly poor performance is a recent event – not related to I-695. As an aside, you can get real-time updates on delays so no reason to be surprised (and hopefully the next governor starts taking a serious look at addressing systemic issues within the department).
@1’s data also shows the Seattle/Bainbridge route pretty consistently has poor on-time performance in the summer months. And of course anyone whose tried to ride that route on a summer weekend afternoon is well aware of that fact.
This is all true but I’d invite you to zoom in closer. Rural and suburban voters are much less likely to use government infrastructure and are very resistant to taxes. They may be a fraction of the tax base, but wield considerable influence creating anti-tax policy. Good luck getting this crowd to sign on to socialism!
@4 aren’t roads, power grids, and public utilities government infrastructure?
@5, some of those things are publicly owned, others are private. The general vibe is much more “go it alone” than urban areas. Urbanites are much likelier to see, appreciate, and approve taxes for shared resources (libraries, social programs, public transportation) than rural areas even they do have some public infrastructure or enjoy welfare/disability checks. Ideology is stronger than reason.
Sorry, but the problem isn’t lack of taxes to pay for the ferries (the money has been there for quite some time). The problem is that the dems (mostly Insley) have insisted that they be hybrid and (surprise surprise) no one wanted to bid on them. Also the dems insistance that they be built in wa is another big factor. This one is totally on Insley and the dem congress.
@7 is absolutely correct. This is more about climate Jay than any tax measures. God forbid we actually criticize him though.
Sorry, calling dumpster fire on this article. Washington WASTES money so badly that it’s purely laughable.
Let’s toll the roads – BUT let’s give away the money to an out of state company to monitor it for us.
Let’s not have a REAL D.O.T – BUT let’s contract out to all of these 3rd party road crews
Let’s have the highest gas taxes in the nation – BUT, let’s not actually spend it on the roads
Let’s do lots of road projects – BUT, let’s take decades to complete them so they are always over budget
Let’s have ferries – BUT, let’s not charge the people who use them vs those that don’t
Let’s spend billions – BUT, not on what we say that taxes are for – like oh billions on homeless people but we said it was for schools. Or let’s say it’s for homeless, but 90% of it is spent on religious organizations who aren’t fixing the issue.
Washington doesn’t know how to manage it’s money and it’s citizens aren’t taking the lies any more.
donOLD
trumpfster’ll
have All the ferrys
running ON TIME or
his name isn’t Eltrumpfster
obv he may have to shoot
a few millions to Make it
So but that’s just the
Price you gotta Pay
to live in a Free
Society
b. is Eyeman
behind
Bars
yet?
c. did Tim
ever open up his
Chair Museum in Tukwila?
“Swiss technology developer ABB has signed a propulsion single source vendor contract with Washington State Ferries, the United States’ largest ferry system, for five new hybrid electric ferries.[..]The five new hybrid ferries will be the first of a fleet of 16 new vessels delivered under WSF’s $3.98 billion Ferry System Electrification plan. By 2050, WSF wants to operate emissions-free. The cooperation between Washington State Ferries and ABB goes back as far as 2020 when the first drive supply agreement was inked.”
https://www.electrive.com/2024/07/27/abb-to-deliver-hybrid-drives-for-washington-state-ferries/
“As the biggest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions among Washington state agencies, WSF burns approximately nineteen million gallons of diesel fuel to support nearly twenty million passengers every year. This innovative electrification program will drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save millions in fuel costs.
WSF aspires to an emission-free ferry fleet by 2050. To get there, we will convert six existing vessels to hybrid-electric power, build 16 new hybrid-electric vessels and add shore charging to 16 terminals.
The Ferry System Electrification program is estimated to cost $3.98 billion, with $1.68 billion currently funded from grants, state, and federal funding. Much of this funding comes from two major Washington state initiatives, including $1.03 billion from Move Ahead Washington and $599 million from the Climate Commitment Act (CCA).”
@12 https://wsdot.wa.gov/construction-planning/major-projects/ferry-system-electrification
@8 “This is more about climate Jay”
No, it’s about our children’s climate. You have got to pick, either you agree that climate change has to be addressed now as we invest in tomorrow’s infrastructure, or you deny that we are facing the climate emergency defined by climate scientists. I guess you could also pick that whatever happens tomorrow is of no consequence to you.
For the record, gas taxes and fees pay for about half the cost of building and maintaining highways. That said, I believe that gas taxes are the wrong instrument to pay for infrastructure due to their regressive nature combined with the lack of transportation alternative.
Muxie’s tesla
owners don’t gotta
Pay no stinkin ‘gas taxes.’
plus
they get
a Far reichwing
MAGAPHONE for
every dime they spent
killing two birds
with only One stone.
@11-15
Thank you, ab.
First, if you didn’t build ferry delays into your plans, that’s on you.
Second it’s always hard and will always be hard to convince people to vote to give up more of their hard earned money for a ferry system that has been riddled with maintenance, crew and reliability issues for decades.
I haven’t ridden the ferry in at least 10 years and have no plans to any time soon.
@12, at least 3 years too late and a waste of tax $. If 5 years ago we had just ordered proven tech diesel boats we wouldn’t be in this mess (and don’t blame the pandemic on this one, the problem has been brewing for many years). But then again, it’s rural people who use the ferries and clearly insly and the dems couldn’t care less.
@18 Claiming rural people use the ferries (Bainbridge and Bremerton are rural?) seems like a stretch. It’s a commuter system that serves many needs, and I expect commuters from suburbs outweigh rural users.
@15 How about a road use tax tied to vehicle weight? Collected at the pump for ICE vehicles (weight classes seem to the obvious choice: 1 ton and under (motorcycles), 1.5 – 2 tons for many cars, 2 – 3 tons, then 3 ton+. Everyone gets a transponder which gets read at the gas pump for ICEs or at EV chargers, where they can pay by the month like a Good to Go pass. It’s vehicle weight that tears up the roads as well as GHGs that are wrecking the climate. Why not hit both?