The Elliott Bay Water Taxi and Metro shuttles from the dock to Alki, Admiral Way and the West Seattle Junction will be permanent year around under the King County Ferry District approved recently by the King County Council.

A newly revised state law permits the county to levy and use locally property taxes to finance walk-on-only ferries.

The state has a curb on the auto ferry business.

An additional penny in King County's property tax would raise $2.5 million annually for water taxi service, said King County Councilman Dow Constantine, D-West Seattle.

The Elliott Bay Water Taxi is paying for about 44 percent of its annual cost, or 30 percent to 33 percent if you include the shuttle buses.

The West Seattle Chamber of Commerce is pushing for the northern half of Jack Block Park to be used for a walk-on ferry dock, replacing the current "temporary" dock at Seacrest Park near Duwamish Head.

There are about 500 parking places there that are largely unused during workdays and underused at almost all times, said Patti Mullen, executive director of the chamber.

"One of our dreams is to get a mixed use development that could work with a ferry dock and parking area," Mullen said.

Constantine said the county will be able to levy property taxes to finance foot ferries, like the Elliott Bay Water Taxi, and be able to take over the foot ferry now serving Vashon Island and Southworth in Kitsap County, run by the state.

The first ferries will be paid for partly with money the state will receive by selling mothballed fast ferries taken out of service a couple of years ago when funds were unavailable.

"There are newer, faster, quieter foot ferries that do not churn up property damaging wakes in restricted areas as the ones the state used and still has mothballed," he noted.

The property tax levy will be added to buy the new passenger ferries.

"The small tax levy is cheap when you consider keeping thousands of cars off the West Seattle Bridge and Highway 99," Constantine said.

King County began operating seasonal water taxi service across Elliott Bay in 1997, a service that by 2006 carried a record-high 122,000 passengers between West Seattle and Pier 55.