Land grab appears as done deal to Rensselaer School official

Democratic candidates for the North Greenbush Town Board and County Legislative candidate Kevin Harrington reacted strongly today to comments in the Times Union from the Superintendent of Schools in Rensselaer , Gordon Reynolds. Reynolds indicates that city voters should count as an anticipated revenue stream for their proposed new school construction, North Greenbush land at the intersections of RTs 4 and 43 as they consider whether to approve construction of a new school on land already given to Rensselaer by the Republican Majority of the North Greenbush Town Board for which we received NOTHING in return.

“This is simply outrageous”, stated Mark Evers, a candidate for Town Supervisor. It appears that Mr. Reynolds knows something that most voters in North Greenbush have only begun to surmise after the GOP board majority rushed to give CO-Lead Agency status to Rensselaer in the annexation process rather than retain this status exclusively for North Greenbush to fight the annexation.

Town Council candidates Alan Michaels and Ernie Kern agreed noting that “Rensselaer taxpayers should not count on one dime of revenue from the land coveted by developers at the 4 and 43 intersection to pay for a new school. It’s going to pay for our schools and educate our kids, NOT the City of Rensselaer!”.

County Legislative candidate Kevin Harrington whose district would include North and East Greenbush as well as Poestenkill added his voice to the chorus of opposition to Rensselaer efforts to take more land from North Greenbush. “The East Greenbush School district which has responsibility for the education of children in these and other towns cannot afford to have its tax base undercut to benefit another school district. The impact of this annexation proposal is staggering with estimates ranging over 50 million dollars in lost revenues to the district” stated Harrington.

We are joining together to put all those attempting to fast track this annexation that we will use every resource to fight this effort by Republican politicians at the town and county levels to destroy the integrity of the tax base of both the Town of North Greenbush and the East Greenbush School District. The candidates urged the public to attend an informational meeting tonight at 6:30 PM at 555 Broadway in Rensselaer.