Even Kitsap County isn’t free of transit-related tax proposals
Oct 18, 2016, 6:42 AM | Updated: 10:59 am
(WSDOT)
(WSDOT)
Residents of Kitsap County don’t have to worry about the $54 billion request from Sound Transit for light rail expansion. It’s not in the taxing district for ST3. But voters in Kitsap County are being asked to increase their taxes to improve ferry service across Puget Sound.
Kitsap Transit currently runs a passenger-only ferry from Bremerton to two docks in Port Orchard. The agency wants to expand its passenger service across Puget Sound.
Related: This is where Sound Transit wants to put future light rail
“Essentially what we’re asking voters is if they would approve a three-tenths of one percent add-on to our retail sales taxes, which is three cents on a $10 purchase, to fund a cross-Sound high-speed passenger ferry program,” Executive Director of Kitsap Transit John Clauson said.
This sale tax increase would create passenger-only ferry service between Bremerton and Seattle, Southworth and Seattle, and Kingston and Seattle.
Clauson says this service would greatly reduce the travel times across the Sound.
“For example, the crossing time to use a Washington State ferry from Bremerton to Seattle takes an hour,” he said. “Our plan, if approved, would get you there in approximately twenty-eight minutes. So you would save a substantial amount of time compared to the alternative.”
The plan would add Bremerton service next year, Kingston in 2018, and Southworth in 2020.
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