We begin our “Durst Watch” series with links to four columns we’ve published since 2005. The first lays out the basic principles for our analysis of the costs and complications of growth in small towns. The other three explore in more detail the primary cause of tax increases brought on by rapid development: the cost of educating children from the new homes who attend the local public schools.

Our first piece on the costs of growth, a 2005 column entitled Once Upon A Time…, raises the central questions that residents of Pine Plains and neighboring towns must grapple with in order to make informed decisions on the Durst proposal. The next coulmn, Lessons From Our Neighbors , draws on our own extensive research into the nearby Dutchess County school district of Arlington, which provides a compelling precedent for estimating the size of the school tax burden the Durst developers will likely leave behind as their most lasting financial legacy. A Small Number refutes the assumptions in the Durst team's own analsyis of the project's impact on school taxes. Finally, Battle of the Experts tries to cut through the contentious data dueling and underscore the irrefutable fact that "judging from development patterns in every other town in the Hudson valley, the costs of providing education and other public services are likely to be much, much greater than the additional tax revenues received."