Washington County's Taking Another Wish List to Annapolis. I Want Receipts, Not Another Promise.

Every year somebody from our area goes down to Annapolis with a list of things Washington County needs. And every year I'm left wondering how much of that list turns into something residents can actually point to.

At an October 6 work session with Hagerstown's mayor and City Council, representatives of the Washington County Community Coalition presented draft priorities for the next Maryland legislative session. LocalNews1 reported the group wants support for Interstate 81 improvements, a public safety center, Hagerstown Fairgrounds Park and the Williamsport library, along with ideas related to blighted properties and local industries.

I-81 shouldn't need another reminder.

If you travel I-81, you know that road isn't some random line on a state map. It's how people get to work, how trucks move through our region and how families get home. When it backs up or there's a serious crash, the ripple goes way beyond the drivers sitting there.

So I'm not mad at our elected leaders for pushing road funding. That's exactly what I'd expect them to do. But I want to see milestones. Is there a completed design? A funded phase? A construction schedule? Or did the project just get another line in a document and another applause break?

The rest of the list deserves that same attention. The Fairgrounds should be a place people can use, not a symbol on a campaign flyer. A library can be important for students, parents and people hunting for work. And blighted properties can affect the blocks where people actually live. But we should be able to talk about costs and benefits without pretending every proposed project has already been delivered.

Neither party gets credit for a project that doesn't exist yet.

I don't care whether somebody is a Republican, Democrat or independent. If they're representing Western Maryland, I want them to fight for the area and tell us what happened when they came back. Not how many photos they took next to other politicians.

The coalition's agenda is still a proposal, and the legislative session is ahead of us. That's exactly when the questions belong on the table, before the plans turn into excuses and every delayed project gets blamed on somebody else.

Give me the funding amount. Give me the deadline. Give me a reason if it fails. Then maybe we can start calling that progress.