Everett, Wash. Published: Tuesday, January 8, 2008
U.S. 2
Kristiansen's vow is ringing hollow
For five years Rep. Dan Kristiansen has promised to make U.S. 2 a "top priority."
Two years ago when he lost a friend to another tragic accident, he pledged to put his efforts into fixing the deadly road, saying "it's personal."
Now yet another legislative session has passed where U.S. 2's problems were largely ignored.
Where was Dan? Where has he been for the last five years when the accident and death tolls were climbing?
His "main goal is to wake up people in the rest of the state of Washington..." Then what? His past performance would lead us to believe that nothing, or at best, very little, will happen.
The truth is that during Dan's time in office more than $10 billion toward road and transportation projects have been allocated throughout the state. By a generous estimate, including dollars allotted in the last biennial budget, the share of those and other allocations to fix U.S. 2 figures out to about 4/100th of 1 percent of the total or roughly 40 cents for every $1,000 spent.
In the last five sessions he has missed out on opportunity after opportunity to get money flowing toward this outdated and dangerous hiway.
And here we are again, Kristiansen saying that fixing U.S. 2 is a "top priority" and "it is personal." In light of past ineffectiveness born of inactivity, this current indignation and posturing is suspect at best.
Dan appears to be all sizzle and no steak. For a constituency starving for action, this just won't do.
