Several weeks ago Mr Carson posted an item about the budget for the state ferries, as follows:

>>I have no idea how this will format, but the numbers above are a spreadsheet for the years 1993-98. They show the combined capital and operating expenditures for Metro and WS Ferries for these years, the only years that I could pull out of the National Transit Database. What they demonstrate is that in these six years these two agencies spent almost $900 million in capital expenditures and almost $2.3 Billion in operating funds. $530 million a year was spent. About $360 million ($60 million/year) was paid for through fares. The rest, $480 million a year, came from non-user fee taxes<<

This indicates that the users paid in just under 16% of the operating budget. Now, in this morning's Eastside Journal there was an Associated Press item that quoted Rep. Beverly Woods as stating that "...ferry riders pay about 60% of the operating budget, and contemplated fare increases would boost that to anywhere between 80 percent and 89 percent." If we assume that the amount paid by ferry passengers is anything like that paid by transit users, this is considerably at variance with the figures quoted previously in this forum. Or are the ferry riders actually subsidizing the transit, which would seem to be the case if Woods' figures are accurate?

This brings up the problem that the average voter has in deciding anything based on published data. You can read almost anything anywhere, with numbers flung about like popcorn, and no sources given. The press evidently will print anything, and I see little evidence of verification by the reporters. Personally, I'm betting on Mr. Carson's data, not the Associated Press. Unfortunately the average citizen never sees discussions like those we have here.

-- Albert Fosha (AFosha@aol.com), February 08, 2000

Answers

Albert-

I started a thread on this subject some months ago, trying to get someone to explain to me the discrepancy between the WA DOT and the National Transit Database numbers. The closest I could get to an explanation was a lower level WA DOT clerk who stated that she believed that the gas tax money was included as fares in their internal figures (but not the national figures) because they (WA DOT) regarded them as user fees. If you want to see more about this, review the old threads. It started with something like "Can anyone explain...." I have looked at the NTD figures over the years, and find them enormously consistent with slow growth from year to year. Given that some federal funding (capital funding mostly) is available based upon the figures provided, I would have to believe that WA DOT counted every passenger trip and revenue dollar they could, under the circumstances. But if anyone has a more definitive source than the NTD, or something that provides additional explanation for the discrepancy in local versus national figures, I'd be glad to see it.

-- (craigcar@crosswinds.net), February 08, 2000.