Washington State Ferries officials released the following memo today, on the heels of an earlier informal opinion from the Attorney General’s office that appeared to indicate that WSF could not proceed with its scheduled Jan. 2 rate increases. The decision was based on a second memo released Dec. 22 from the Attorney General’s office.

“The State Attorney Generals Office (AGO) has advised today that WSF has the legal authority to move forward to implement a 2.5 percent across-the-board fare increase on Jan. 1, 2011, as approved by the Washington State Transportation Commission,” reads the release. “Voter-approved initiative 1053 does not affect this fare increase because the fare increase was officially filed before the effective date of the initiative. We are proceeding with the changes necessary to implement the fare increase on Jan. 1, and we hope to have January passes available Friday. Thank you for your patience.”

The Sounder will post more information on this issue as it becomes available. The Seattle PI has also posted an article about the decision.