What is odd, is the 9 cents a gallon gas tax that was approved just days ago
is going towards a fancy tunnel to replace the via duct and the 520 bridge.
Everyone in the state of washington has to pay for this gas tax, but how
often do people in other counties uses the via duct or the 520 bridge ? The
via duct tunnel is 3 times more than just replacing the old via duct. Why
does seattle have to have a tunnel ? I have lived here all my life, and
about to move out do to all the taxes we pay. Sorry I know this is off
topic but it just ****es me off about more fees and taxes in washington
state.

Thanks
Ed


wrote in message
ups.com...
Maybe you should have to buy a ticket to go through the lock. Or buy a

yearly pass.
Are the locks funded by user fees, or from general revenue?

**********************

The locks are funded by general revenue, as they are a public, federal
waterway.

Pleasure boats are at the bottom of the pecking order for using the
locks, and that's probably OK. The military has first priority, other
government agencies have second priority, commercial boats (tugs,
fishboats, charter cruises, etc) have third priority and finally
recreational users.

We were inbound a few years ago when the large locks were shut down for
repair.
We hung on the waiting wall, literally for several hours while the
traffic *didn't* move through the small lock. By some fluke of timing,
every time the small lock would be available for inbound traffic, the
PA announcer would call out, "Attention on the West Wall, next lock
through is for Argosy only!", and one of the tourist boats running from
Elliott Bay through the locks to Lake Union would go chugging past all
the waiting boats returning from a summer weekend. The poor tourists
from Cleveland, Omaha, East Bugtussle, et all......they'd line the
decks of the Argosy boat to call out "hello!" and wave to all the
waiting boaters as they motored by. When the second or third boatfull
got a good look at just how the local boaters were waving back, they
had to conclude that folks in Seattle must be rude and very unfriendly.

It wouldn't take much of a fee to keep the locks open as they are. I
would guess that a $5 toll wouldn't keep anybody from boating, and
would go a long way toward bridging the funding gap. By the same token,
they ought to charge the thousands of tourists that visit the locks in
any given week $5 or so at the gate- the vast majority of folks
enjoying the locks and using them for recreation will never go through
in a boat.