Starting May 1 ferry users will see another fare increase go into effect.

The Washington State Transportation Commission approved a 2.5 percent fare hike last week after a public hearing in Seattle.

The increase was originally slated to be 4 percent, however an outpouring of negative public comment prompted the commission to lower the increase to the approved 2.5 percent.

Mike Lauver, co-owner of the Whidbey SeaTac Shuttle, was one of the people who ventured to Seattle to testify at the public hearing.

“For the past six years, we’ve seen price increases that have outstripped the CPI by a huge margin,” Lauver said Friday, referring to the Consumer Price Index. He testified against such a large hike in fares, which would be a significant added cost to his company. The proposal came after consecutive years of 6 percent fare increases by the ferry system.

Lauver was concerned about the effect of an additional 4 percent increase on his company’s estimated 40,000 customers this year.

“They’re going to break the back of our customers if they continue down this track,” Lauver said.

The 2.5 percent increase was the amount originally proposed by the Tariff Policy Committee to the commission last January. However, the commission increased the proposed increase to 4 percent because of concerns over the ferries finances, according to a news release from Washington State Ferries. The commission held public hearings and ferry users were vocal about the effects such a large fare increase would have on ferry users and ferry-dependent communities.

The decision-making body received more than 270 comments along with petitions about the fare increase, and finally relented, settling on the 2.5 percent increase. It begins May 1 along with the seasonal peak season surcharge, which adds another 20 percent to the price of a single ferry ticket. Frequent users avoid that increase by purchasing multi-pass cards.