The price for Islanders to take their vehicles aboard Steamship Authority ferries next year may remain the same as the boat line ponders other rate hikes to make up for a budget shortfall. 

The Steamship Authority has dropped a potential $3.50 to $5 rate increase for excursion fares from the Vineyard and cut a proposed passenger rate hike from $1 to 50 cents, according to a revised draft of the preliminary 2025 operating budget presented to the boat line board of governors this week.

Standard automobile fares, mainland parking rates and freight shipping are still scheduled to go up next year, to offset the Steamship Authority’s projected $3.4 million operating loss.

“I do regret that we have to have these increases, but looking at the numbers, I see no way around it,” Martha’s Vineyard board member James Malkin said at the board’s monthly meeting Tuesday morning, before an audience of Islanders at the Tisbury Emergency Services Facility.

The nearly $151 million budget reflects a more than 11 per cent increase in the Steamship Authority’s operating costs next year, along with a projected drop in revenue as fewer people and automobiles take the ferry in 2025.

“We’re expecting a decrease of... about 17,000 passengers [and] about 23,000 cars compared to the previous budget, and most of those cars are the standard fare cars,” treasurer/comptroller Mark Rozum said Tuesday, basing his projections on boat line traffic from August 2023 through July of this year.

Standard fare automobiles bring in revenue equal to more than 130 per cent of what it costs the Steamship Authority to carry them, according to a cost of service analysis from Mr. Rozum and assistant treasurer Courtney Oliveira.

By comparison, excursion fares — which include tickets for two adults and two children as well as a Vineyard-based vehicle — cover just 32 per cent of their costs.

And their numbers are growing. Since 2019, Mr. Rozum said he’s seen a 3.8 per cent increase in enrollments for excursion rates overall, with more than 9,000 on the Vineyard and more than 5,000 on Nantucket.

Island residents will have the chance to discuss the budget and rate hikes directly with Mr. Rozum and Ms. Oliveira at an informational open house Oct. 22 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Tisbury Senior Center.

“We’ll be more in depth, going the line by line in the budget in more of a forum,” Mr. Rozum said. “I want to listen and get people’s advice and answer questions.” 

The 2025 operating shortfall stood at $5 million in a previous draft of the preliminary budget, reviewed by the port council on Oct. 1, which included the excursion fare increases and higher passenger ticket hike.

Since then, Mr. Rozum said, he and assistant treasurer Courtney Oliveira have been able to trim the budget gap by more than $1.5 million by reclassifying information technology costs for the boat line’s future reservations system, which has not yet begun development, as capital instead of operating expenses.

Among other board business Tuesday, director of engineering and maintenance Mark Amundsen reported on the authority’s three newest freight ferries, identical triplets M/V Aquinnah, M/V Barnstable and M/V Monomoy.

The Barnstable is complete, Mr. Amundsen said, but remains at the shipyard in Alabama because inspections by the U.S. Coast Guard have been delayed by the recent hurricanes.

The Aquinnah is a few weeks behind the Barnstable and the Monomoy is currently in storage, awaiting its turn to be transformed from an oil field service vessel to a freight and passenger ferry for the Steamship Authority.

With two new ferries nearly ready to join the fleet, the Steamship Authority is selling off its workhorse freighters M/V Katama and M/V Gay Head, which also began their lives as offshore oil support vessels before the boat line purchased and converted them a generation ago.

The Katama, built in 1981 and converted for the authority in 1988, is selling to Maurice Denis of Miami, Fla. for $166,000 and the Gay Head, which arrived in 1989, is going to Robert B. Our Equipment Leasing of Harwich for $200,000, following a pair of unanimous board votes Tuesday.

During the public comment period Tuesday, Islanders peppered the board with questions and recommendations.

Kate Warner of West Tisbury, who is the energy planner for the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, urged the board to include climate change in its decision-making considerations.

“We’ve entered a very different world, and you need some fresh thinking,” Ms. Warner said.

Dukes County commissioner Doug Ruskin criticized the Steamship Authority’s $1.3 million advertising budget.

“I don’t understand, in the market we’re in, how it’s really necessary,” Mr. Ruskin said, calling for the boat line to cut its advertising expenses by half.

“The traffic will not be dramatically reduced,” he said.

Commission chair Christine Todd called for a listening session on the Island for Steamship Authority management to hear from Vineyarders on topics other than the budget and fare increases.

Ann Cody chided board chair Bob Jones for using the word “gentleman” while discussing plans to identify a consultant for the executive search to replace Steamship Authority general manager Bob Davis, who is changing jobs next year.

“Let’s be open-minded to whoever will be the next people on this board, on the port council, the new general manager and the new head of the search firm,” she said.

In a brief executive session Tuesday, the board and Mr. Davis agreed on his next role with the boat line after stepping down as general manager a year from now. On Nov. 1, 2025, Mr. Davis will become a senior advisor to the Steamship Authority for up to 18 months at the equivalent of his salary as general manager at that time.