MAINE, Maine — U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, has asked the Biden administration to make sure small Maine island communities don’t miss out on new funding.
The Ferry Service for Rural Communities Program was formed with a budget of $1 billion to bolster ferry systems nationwide. The program is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Maine's ferry services are expected to benefit from the program, but there's a quirk in the way the state sets ferry rates that could end up with those services getting short-changed.
The Maine State Ferry Service sets passenger rates according to what it deems fair for everyone who uses the ferries. It does not set the rates according to how much it actually costs to provide the services.
That means it could appear to regulators in Washington that Maine needs less of the federal funding to improve its ferries than it actually requires.
In an effort to prevent a potential issue, Pingree wrote a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, explaining her concern.
“For so many people who live on ferries, it’s really an extension of the highway,” Pingree told NEWS CENTER Maine on Thursday. “It’s the only way to get home, so it’s really important to people. But, as people always say, the devil’s in the details. So, we want to make sure as all of the rules are written around this, that it allows for all state-run ferry systems or all ferry systems around the country and isn’t specific to any particular area.”
Pingree is a resident of North Haven, an island just north of Vinalhaven and off the eastern coast of Rockland, where her own ferry docks.