Given Washington state’s history as a shipbuilding powerhouse, Gov. Bob Ferguson’s decision this month to exercise a contract option to build a third state ferry in Florida is a bitter pill to swallow. The region’s maritime industrial base helped win world wars and still sustains a skilled workforce that maintains everything from the North Pacific fishing fleet to the nation’s nuclear-powered Navy.
Instead, $715 million in state taxpayer dollars will bypass Puget Sound and flow to the Sunshine State for ferry construction.
In reality, Ferguson had little choice: Eastern Shipbuilding of Panama City submitted a bid for the three that was $357 million less than the in-state alternative. Having inherited a state ferry system in crisis from his predecessor and one desperate for new vessels, going to Florida was, and remains, the best option.
But that state of play needn’t remain that way in the future. Ferguson and state lawmakers could help strengthen the state’s maritime industry by making it quicker and easier to build and maintain ships of all sizes here while providing financial incentives that would lead to the expansion of good-paying union jobs.
Yes, it’s naïve not to acknowledge Washington’s higher costs and regulatory environment that make it more expensive to do business here, relative to the nation’s Gulf Coast. Yet this state remains home to nearly a quarter of the nation’s shipyards, with a 62,000-strong workforce generating $24 billion each year, according to the governor’s office.
Some state lawmakers have publicly grumbled that sending the ferry contract to Florida was a mistake. Yet many of them voted for Tacoma Democratic Rep. Jake Fey’s bill to allow a nationwide bidding process that increased the competition and made a lower, more fiscally responsible bid possible.
Rather than complain, Port of Seattle Commissioner Ryan Calkins viewed the Florida ferry contract as a “wake-up call.” The ferry system’s demands don’t end at three boats — to sustain the system, 13 more will be needed by 2040. Calkins, for his part, set to work convening commissioners from a dozen local ports to launch the Maritime Industrial Base Coalition to find new ways to help shipyards here compete.
“With a proud history of shipbuilding and a growing ecosystem of advanced manufacturing and technology, we have the expertise and facilities to support a modern, resilient maritime economy,” Calkins wrote.
Calkins provides a laundry list that elected leaders of all levels of government could support: finding additional land to grow shipyards; reducing the costs to train and retain workers; streamlining permitting; and more.
The commissioner also sees opportunity just as Congress and the Trump administration consider new legislation that could incentivize and drive new capital into shipyards around the country, through what’s called the SHIPS Act. Ferguson, for his part, penned a letter in July throwing his support for Washington’s shipyards to be included in a potential new federal tax incentive program to help spur new investment.
To grow, what Washington’s shipyards need, more than anything, is certainty they’ll have the workload to hire, invest and grow in the Northwest. Calkins and Ferguson have shown ways local leaders can lend their voices to that cause. A rising tide can lift all boats — and create the potential for new, in-state bidders for Washington State Ferries.
