Post by ferryfast admin on Feb 22, 2008 14:03:09 GMT -5
Last updated February 22, 2008 4:43 a.m. PT
Kitsap Transit using tax credits for fast-ferry research
Seattle PI
seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_kitsap_ferries.html
BREMERTON, Wash. -- A plan to use tax credits to continue fast-ferry research with an eye to restoring passenger-only service between Bremerton and Seattle has been approved by the Kitsap Transit board of directors.
Some details remain to be resolved, but the board favors the concept of new market tax credits made available by the Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority, board Vice Chairwoman Darlene Kordonowy said.
A resolution to pursue the idea was adopted by the Kitsap Transit board 5 to 0 this week with two members abstaining.
With the tax credits Kitsap Transit could leverage $4.2 million in federal grants and local funds into $6 million.
About $700,000 would go for fees, leaving $5.3 million for ferry work, including $3.75 million for a low-wake prototype boat to be built by All American Marine Inc. of Bellingham, starting in May or June.
Test runs with passengers through Rich Passage would be conducted in March-November 2009, after which a decision would be made on whether to continue the service regular, Kitsap Transit Executive Director Richard M. Hayes said.
Besides covering the fast-ferry project, the special funds would provide $650,000 for a spare ferry for Port Orchard-Bremerton runs and $150,000 to repair the Carlisle II, which is used on that route.
The downtown areas of Bremerton, Port Orchard and Seattle meet criteria for the tax credits, which are intended to provide low-cost capital for economic development in low-income communities.
Under the program, a nonprofit group provides 70 percent of the money for a project and gets the other 30 percent as funds that need not be repaid if the project is successful for seven years. The investor, typically a bank, gains by receiving tax credits for providing the money.
Kitsap Transit isn't a nonprofit, so it would lend money to the Marine Transportation Association of Kitsap, which would also obtain the tax-credit funding. After seven years, the association would give the ferry to Kitsap Transit, which in turn would forgive the loan.
The plan is not contrary to the will of voters who have twice rejected ballot measures to pay for Kitsap Transit operation of fast ferries, Kordonowy asserted.
"What I have heard in the elections that have failed is, `Don't ask us again to fund passenger-only ferry service in Kitsap County through a sales tax,'" she said. "I never interpreted it as, `We don't want passenger-only ferry service.'"
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Information from: Kitsap Sun, www.kitsapsun.com/
Kitsap Transit using tax credits for fast-ferry research
Seattle PI
seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_kitsap_ferries.html
BREMERTON, Wash. -- A plan to use tax credits to continue fast-ferry research with an eye to restoring passenger-only service between Bremerton and Seattle has been approved by the Kitsap Transit board of directors.
Some details remain to be resolved, but the board favors the concept of new market tax credits made available by the Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority, board Vice Chairwoman Darlene Kordonowy said.
A resolution to pursue the idea was adopted by the Kitsap Transit board 5 to 0 this week with two members abstaining.
With the tax credits Kitsap Transit could leverage $4.2 million in federal grants and local funds into $6 million.
About $700,000 would go for fees, leaving $5.3 million for ferry work, including $3.75 million for a low-wake prototype boat to be built by All American Marine Inc. of Bellingham, starting in May or June.
Test runs with passengers through Rich Passage would be conducted in March-November 2009, after which a decision would be made on whether to continue the service regular, Kitsap Transit Executive Director Richard M. Hayes said.
Besides covering the fast-ferry project, the special funds would provide $650,000 for a spare ferry for Port Orchard-Bremerton runs and $150,000 to repair the Carlisle II, which is used on that route.
The downtown areas of Bremerton, Port Orchard and Seattle meet criteria for the tax credits, which are intended to provide low-cost capital for economic development in low-income communities.
Under the program, a nonprofit group provides 70 percent of the money for a project and gets the other 30 percent as funds that need not be repaid if the project is successful for seven years. The investor, typically a bank, gains by receiving tax credits for providing the money.
Kitsap Transit isn't a nonprofit, so it would lend money to the Marine Transportation Association of Kitsap, which would also obtain the tax-credit funding. After seven years, the association would give the ferry to Kitsap Transit, which in turn would forgive the loan.
The plan is not contrary to the will of voters who have twice rejected ballot measures to pay for Kitsap Transit operation of fast ferries, Kordonowy asserted.
"What I have heard in the elections that have failed is, `Don't ask us again to fund passenger-only ferry service in Kitsap County through a sales tax,'" she said. "I never interpreted it as, `We don't want passenger-only ferry service.'"
---
Information from: Kitsap Sun, www.kitsapsun.com/