Office of Budget Review urges county to approve North Ferry rate hike

The county Legislature’s Budget Review Office has given Shelter Island’s North Ferry Company a thumbs up on its request for an rate hike, which would be the first since 2004 if the Legislature approves it.

The total yield of the proposed increases would be $410,154, according to the company, up 7.8 percent from last year’s revenues of $5,229,709. Most of that additional revenue, more than $275,000, would come from non-discounted fares.

In a cover letter to legislators dated June 30, Gail Vizzini, director of the BRO, wrote that the non-partisan budget office recommended that the company’s rate request be approved.

“While the average rate increase is 12.5 percent,” she wrote, “this compares favorably with the rate of inflation of 19.6 percent since 2004. Given the company’s financial projections, the rate increase is reasonable, especially given rising costs for fuel, personnel and health insurance expenses as well as attrition in ridership. The company was required to borrow from the parent company in order to address cash flow concerns. Even if the requested rate increase is approved, we project negative net income.”

According to Ms. Vizzini, the BRO “conducted a thorough review of the certified and audited financial statements” of North Ferry to assess its financial condition and the rate request.

“Rate increases are requested for nine car fares and average 12.05 percent,” she noted. “The petitioner’s current rate structure contains 34 different rates in eightcategories, most of which remain unchanged from 2008. The largest requested increase of 18.2 percent is to the car prepaid ticket 5 day resident commuter fare which is proposed to increase by $4 from $22 to $26.”

While the BRO in past years has sometimes resisted both North and South Ferry’s traditional discounts for Islanders and commuters, it took no issue with the practice this time.

“It is important to note,” Ms. Vizzini wrote, “that the proposed [commuter] fare remains significantly discounted at $2.60 per passage based on North Ferry Company’s average cost of $7.16 to provide passage across the bay by car. The casual traveler and commercial truck traffic continue to subsidize resident travel as they have historically.”

A hearing on the rate request has been scheduled for Tuesday, August 2 at 6:30 p.m. at the W.H. Rogers Legislative Building at 725 Veterans Memorial Highway in Smithtown.

North Ferry Company officials filed the rate request with the Legislature on May 16, seeking to raise revenues 7.8 percent.

For Island residents, the price of a book of 10 round-trip tickets would rise from $48 to $52, 8.3 percent, or 20 cents per trip. The price of a five-day round-trip pass would rise from $22 to $26, up 18.2 percent, or 40 cents a trip. That would be the same $2.60-a-trip rate proposed for a book of 10 resident round-trip tickets.

Six-day commuter passes would no longer be offered.

For non-residents, same day round-trip tickets would cost $15, up 15.3 percent from $13. The non-discounted one-way fare would go up $1 to $10, or 11 percent. They would pay $79 for a book of 10 round-trips, up 9.7 percent from $72, and $62 for a book of 10 one-way tickets, up 8 percent from $57.

Also under the proposal, the separate higher fare for SUVs would be eliminated, and the truck rate would apply to vehicles 22 feet long instead of 20. Modified vehicles — trucks and vans with extensions — would no longer qualify for discounted rates.

No change is proposed in the rates for foot passengers, which are $1.50 for residents who buy them in the ferry office and $2 for others. The walk-on rate last went up in 2006 to $2 for everyone but, after a local outcry, the county reduced it for residents.

The proposed increases would not affect current bicycle rates of $5 per trip, or $3 per trip with a commuter discount.

Because of higher costs and slumping ridership, the company believes “that we will not be able to fund ourselves through next spring, even if we have a good summer,” according to a prepared statement that North Ferry manager Bridg Hunt released in May.

Mr. Hunt said in May the company was running in the red for the third year in a row.

In addition to a public hearing before the Legislature, the rate hike will be the subject of a local hearing before the Shelter Island Ferry Advisory Committee. No date has been announced.