Be prepared to pay more for less to hitch a ride with Washington State Ferries beginning later this year.

The House of Representatives last week approved a state transportation funding package that calls for a 10 percent increase in ferry fares spread out over the next two years.

Fares will rise by 7.5 percent later this year and by 2.5 percent in 2012 under the two-year transportation financing plan endorsed in a 89-6 vote by members of the House.

The pending price hikes might just backfire, according to San Juan County Councilman Howie Rosenfeld, council liaison to the county’s Ferry Advisory Committee, by driving business away from the cash-strapped ferry system.

The boost in fares is certain to “hurt” ferry-dependent communities, such as the San Juans, he said.

“The legislators need to remember that the ferries are not only part of the state highway system, but public transportation with an already very high 70-plus percent fare-box recovery rate,” Rosenfeld said. “It’s these ferry riders that keep being punished for the problems at WSF and the lack of dedicated, sustainable funding by the legislature.”

In addition to price hikes, the House appropriations bill calls for a two-month expansion of the latest winter sailing schedule in the San Juans.

That means the winter schedule would begin a month earlier and extend for another month into the spring.

It also means, Rosenfeld noted, that the international run, which travels from Anacortes to Sidney, B.C., with a stop in Friday Harbor along the way, would be suspended for an additional two months, and leave the islands without a boat to supplement inter-island sailings during the winter schedule.

“Capacity would not be adequate for our needs during those extended months and we’d lose the Sidney run,” he said.

The House two-year transportation spending plane, which totals $8.9 billion overall, allocates $473 million for the operational expenses of the state ferry system, the nation’s largest.

It mirrors the two-year operational budget endorsed last week by the state Senate, which total $492.3 million.

The senate’s plan also includes a 25-cent surcharge on each ticket purchased; revenue generated by that surcharge would be dedicated for construction of a 144-car ferry sometime in the future.