I live roughly 300 miles from the nearest ferry port in Washington state and haven’t been on a state ferry since 2001. 

Regardless, when I go to renew my car tabs next month, I’ll get to pay an extra $5 to fund construction of new ferries. You will too. And you’ll pay the same fee for the same purpose if you have snowmobile tabs or seek an off-road vehicle permit, among other activities that require a trip to the Washington state Department of Licensing. If transferring title on a vehicle or handling other title-related issues, the ferry-replacement fee is $12. 

The Washington state Department of Transportation is spending $393 million to replace three, 144-car ferries. The first began transporting people and vehicles earlier this year, and the other two will hit the water between now and 2017. They replace 1950s-era vessels that are nearing the end of their useful life. 

Now would be a good time for me to question whether the entire state should have to pay for a service that’s so specific to the Puget Sound—and a service that even most who live over there don’t use on a regular basis. Why should we all have to shell out extra money to pay for something we’ll rarely use?

It’s a legitimate question, but it’s one that might be best to leave unasked in Eastern Washington, especially in the rural counties on this side of the state. 

A WSDOT study looked at how much money is spent in each county compared with how much that county contributes in tax dollars between 2004 and 2012. The Puget Sound area, defined as King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties,  received 96 cents in project funding for every $1 of tax money collected. The rest of the state received $1.04 in project funding for every $1 in taxes. 

That doesn’t sound like much of a spread, but it adds up to $520 million in projects. 

In Spokane County, the numbers aren’t nearly as favorable. It received 84 cents in funding for every $1 in taxes collected between 2004 and 2012, less than any of the Puget Sound counties, all of which received between 95 and 99 cents on the dollar.

Some of Spokane’s rural neighbors, however, benefitted greatly. To the south, Whitman County received $1.27 in project funding for every $1 in taxes. To the west, Adams and Lincoln counties received $2.02 and $3.04, respectively. To the north, Stevens County came in a shade higher than Spokane, at 87 cents, but Pend Oreille County landed $1.84. 

Granted, the tax base is smaller in the rural counties, but we’re still talking about tens of millions of dollars in transportation projects in each county.

I don’t want to pay for big new ferries that I’ll use once every decade or so. But I do want consistent quality in the roads throughout the state. And I would like to see the state commit to extending the North Spokane Corridor from Francis Avenue to Interstate 90, a $750 million proposition, something that surely would skew Spokane’s numbers favorably. So, I’ll hold off on grumping too much for now, with the expectation we’ll still get more than our fair share of funding in the rest of the state.