In a guest column in today’s Seattle Times, Jan Drago, King County Councilmember and chair of the King County Ferry District, uses false claims, factual errors and misleading statements to defend the poor performance of King County since taking over the West Seattle Ferry from a private operator.

Washington Policy Center’s original analysis used the official budget approved by the King County Ferry District for 2010 to show how a strictly public operation was three times more expensive than the public/private partnership with Argosy Cruises.

According to this budget, the cost to operate the West Seattle route in 2009 was about $808,000. Once King County took over the route, their budget plan for 2010 shows County officials raised costs to over $3 million.

According to official documents, King County’s union labor costs alone are more than the entire annual operating costs under the Argosy partnership.

In her column, Councilmember Drago only reports for a single month, and she excludes overhead, upcoming capital expenses and all previous costs that were incurred during the first quarter of the year. Despite these accounting maneuvers, Councilmember Drago still reaches the same conclusion we did: King County’s operation is more expensive than the public/private arrangement with Argosy Cruises.

She also mistakenly states the County is operating the route for seven months and estimates the added costs to taxpayers at a mere $147,000. In reality, King County is operating the route for nine months in 2010 and a full twelve months beginning in 2011. This increases her cost estimate for taxpayers to $189,000 in 2010 and $252,000 in 2011.

Official budget documents show the cost differences are actually much larger.

Either way, the County takeover of the West Seattle Ferry costs taxpayers far more than it did under the public/private model.

Ironically, Councilmember Drago also accuses WPC of making an “apples to oranges” comparison, but then does it herself by throwing in the Vashon Route. Our analysis only compared the County’s performance with managing the West Seattle Ferry. Using the Vashon Route to somehow justify the higher costs on the West Seattle route is irrelevant and distracting.

With regard to the Vashon Route, taking over an inefficient service from the State and making it less inefficient is still nothing to brag about.

For over a decade, Argosy Cruises successfully managed the West Seattle Ferry efficiently and effectively. Once King County took over, costs soared and ridership fell. According to ferry officials, ridership has fallen 40 percent since the County took over.

County leaders took an existing public service that was working well and made it a model of high cost and mismanagement.

Councilmember Drago admits all of this is true and somehow tries to justify it.

At the end of the day, property owners in King County are paying more and receiving less for the West Seattle Ferry.