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Land claim money should benefit the entire county, St. Lawrence County legislator says

Posted 2/11/15

To the Editor: My name is Chad Colbert and I am a newly elected St. Lawrence County Legislator in District 11. There have been a couple newspaper articles recently regarding the land claim monies and …

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Land claim money should benefit the entire county, St. Lawrence County legislator says

Posted

To the Editor:

My name is Chad Colbert and I am a newly elected St. Lawrence County Legislator in District 11. There have been a couple newspaper articles recently regarding the land claim monies and how that is to be distributed. Chairman Lightfoot has, in my opinion, been taking a lot of criticism over his stance to leave the Massena school out of the payment. The public needs to know that Mr. Lightfoot is not alone. I for one support him whole heartedly.

If it were up to me the county would be using all the money to benefit the whole county not just a select few. Let me briefly explain my reasoning: In the MOU it states that St. Lawrence County gets the payment, the schools and towns were added as an afterthought.

The rationale is given that it is fair to give the towns of Massena and Brasher, and the Massena and Brasher school districts some of the money because the land is being taken from those towns and school districts. Some would have us believe that because they are losing the land the tax revenues will fall for the above towns and school districts. That is false. The state will make those taxing entities whole. There is no lost tax revenue, none, zero. We need to be honest, the towns and the schools will not be hurt financially by this land claim.

Secondly, as Chairman Lightfoot has stated, the county is not in the business of subsidizing schools, or towns for that matter. To do so would set a dangerous precedent. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, NY and the District of Columbia out spend all other states in education. NY State spends over $19,000 per student according to 2012 data. Throwing more money at a school district is not the answer.

We already spend more than any other state in the country on education, enough is enough. If the Massena and Brasher School districts need financial assistance that is the state’s responsibility not the county’s. The state is the bad guy here not the County. It’s the State that has put oppressive mandates on local schools and governments and then provided no funding to support those mandates. If you have issues with school funding that is for the State government, not the County.

Finally, I represent district 11 within St. Lawrence County but I represent the whole county as well. If the county gets the money, it will benefit all the taxpayers of St. Lawrence County, not just those in Massena and Brasher.

We currently have to borrow $10 million to cover cash flow, if we get the $4 million per year in land claim monies we could, within a couple years eliminate the need to borrow that money saving the county approximately $100,000 in interest payments. That savings could go toward repairing the county’s aging highway infrastructure and/or reducing the county tax levy.

Mr. Lightfoot is not alone in his stand on the land claim monies. I support him and will continue to support him in this issue and as Chairman of the board of Legislators.

Chad Colbert

St. Lawrence County Legislator District 11