Skagit County Public Works recommends 30% ferry fare increase for 2026 to approach revenue target

Skagit County Public Works presented its 2025 Ferry Fare Revenue Target Report to the Skagit County Board of Commissioners on Sept. 16, 2025, recommending a 30% increase to the operations-and-maintenance portion of fares for 2026 and setting public hearings on the proposal in October and November.

The report, prepared under Resolution 2023-0152, updates the county’s revenue-target methodology and projects a 2026 adjusted operations-and-maintenance (O&M) target of about $2.4 million. Public Works staff said the 2026 fare-recovery requirement is 55% (the board’s longer-term goal is 65% recovery by Dec. 31, 2028). Staff recommended a 30% increase on O&M fares for 2026; with that increase they estimate fare-box revenue of roughly $2.3 million and an estimated 54.7% recovery, short of the 55% requirement. The proposal has not been adopted and will proceed through the county’s public-notice and hearing process.

Public Works Director Michael See and Ferry Operations Division Manager Rachel Rowe described the method set by Resolution 2023-0152 (signed 7/27/2023): the evaluation period uses actuals for 2023–24, an adjusted 2025 budget, and projected 2026–27 figures; the Seattle CPI is applied for escalation; and the five-year average used to set the revenue target now includes two future years instead of looking only backward. Capital expenditures are excluded from the target calculations.

Rowe explained how haul-outs and dry-dock years are annualized in the calculation. The division’s adjusted O&M figure…