Secession Plan Is Floated for New York City From State

Emboldened by Mayor Bloomberg's testimony in Albany this week that the city's taxpayers pay the state $11 billion a year more than they get back, a City Council member is offering legislation that would begin the process of having New York City secede from New York State.

Peter Vallone Jr., a Democrat who represents Queens, is pushing the idea, and the Council plans to hold a hearing on the possibility of making New York City the 51st state.

"I think secession's time has definitely come again," Mr. Vallone, who spearheaded a similar push in 2003, told The New York Sun yesterday. "If not secession, somebody please tell me what other options we have if the state is going to continue to take billions from us and give us back pennies. Should we raise taxes some more? Should we cut services some more? Or should we consider seriously going out on our own?"

During a visit to Albany this week, Mr. Bloomberg called on lawmakers to give the city its "fair share" of tax revenue and said that the state took in $11 billion more from New York City than was returned in the state budget. Mr. Vallone says that the state's demands on the city in worsening economic times now make it necessary to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them.

"Not only is it about self-determination and self-rule, but it's about fairness," Mr. Vallone said. "It's something we see every year in the budget. They take $11 billion from us and give us back a mere pittance and they make it seem like they're doing us a favor to give that pittance back. Somehow they missed the point that that is New York City's own tax money and we deserve it."

Mr. Vallone's legislation would create a commission to study the issue and then recommend whether to put it to a referendum. Since secession would have to be approved by the Albany legislators, its passage would be unlikely. Another to council member, Simcha Felder, who chairs the Governmental Operations committee, said the bill will be considered this year.

"It certainly has merit," Mr. Felder said of the proposal. "Why in the world should New York City be held hostage to the state? It just doesn't make sense."

link: http://www.nysun.com/article/70397

forever, maybe longer than forever.

Ok, this is probably a ploy to get more of the city's bucks back. But this has been a fight I've seen since I was knee high to a fire plug. Good luck to them.

If I recall, Texas is allowed, as part of the treaty that admitted the Republic of Texas into the Union, to divide into as many as 5 states. California has discussed division for years. I wouldn't be shocked if Florida looked at division.

It is unfair though, that the taxes are not spent in the area where they are gathered.

.

The Bronx, Queens, Kings (Brooklyn), and Manhattan go.......

but f*&k Staten Island, and the ferry John Travolta took.

ETA: give that one to Jersey!

so if this happened, would they re-secede (a la West Virginia) and rejoin NY State?

Same thing, all the money was spent on South or Central Florida projects with little to no funding for panhandle projects. It didn't make the ballot but opened some eyes in the state capital.

I think part of the problem is that much of Upstate New York is in a period of permanent depression, much like Michigan. No one is going to want upstate.

Let all the states go their own way. America is dead as of today.

Article 4, Section 3

Section 3. New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress.

Therefore, no new state.

West Virginia

and it will never be given.

NYC is the State's Wallet. You don't give up your wallet.

Norman Mailer and Jimmy Breslin made this their platform when they ran for office in NYC some decades ago. I'll never forget it. :evilgrin: I was just out of high school, living in NYC, and I thought this was a brilliant idea.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/16/nyregion/16nyc.html

*** bandwidth warning ***

http://frumin.net/ation/2007/11/mailer_for_mayor_in_memorium.html

Mailer for Mayor (In Memorium)

In 1969 Norman Mailer ran for Mayor. In 2002 my grandfather (probably the most Mailer-like person I know) gave me an original copy of the campaign poster that he had squirreled away for 30+ years. A week or so ago, Mr. Mailer passed away, so it seems like the appropriate time to put this poster on the web, since I have never been able to find a copy online before. I'm about as far from a knowledgeable design critic as you can get, but this thing is an undeniable work of art, especially in the eye of any native New Yorker.

<snip>

Fordham born and bred.

Whoever has the poster should hang on to it tightly.

Would DC then claim that they should get 2 senators?