A campaign is underway to convince Kitsap County voters to raise the sales tax to fund a network of passenger ferries to Seattle from Kingston, Bremerton, Port Orchard and Southworth.

The proposal is a less-costly version of a plan voters rejected in 2003. Backers say the new foot-ferry proposal is attractive now for several reasons: higher fares on state ferries, increased gas prices, a new toll on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and two failed attempts by purely private companies to set up a service. Residents in the central part of the county are debating how much the service would benefit their economy — even if they don’t use it.