New York City is considering forming a commission to study whether the city should secede from the state of New York:
A bill that would create a commission to study whether the city should secede from New York state will get another hearing soon — after sitting in the City Council for nearly two years
The bill was introduced on Feb. 26, 2003. A hearing was held shortly after, but no action has been taken on the bill since then.
“I expected delays and opposition when we got to the state level, but I never thought it would be held up for two years trying to get out of a City Council committee,” said Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens), who introduced the bill.
But Councilman Bill Perkins (D-Manhattan) — the chair of the Government Operations committee, where the bill has been held up since May 2003 — told The Post that he plans to hold another hearing on the bill “sometime this year.”
After a disappointing “State of the State” speech two weeks ago, Vallone said this was the perfect time to look at whether the city should secede.
“Ten years of long political speeches and empty promising while New York City residents pay for his mistakes, Gov. Pataki is slapping us on the back with one hand while lifting our wallets with the other,” Vallone said. “We cannot raise taxes any more, nor can we make any further cuts. This may be our only viable option.”
There are two little things standing in the way of the mighty city council of New York—namely, the New York legislature and the U. S. Congress. Turning our eye to the United States Constitution, Article IV, 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.
And as far as seceding and forming their own country goes, I seem to remember that a pretty bloody war was fought here on that very subject. How did that turn out, anyway? Why are they wasting their time on this foolishness?
The Upper Michigan seperatist movement, the state would be called Superior, at least has a geographic justification. Now all they need is a self sufficient economy and the constitutionally required approval.
We here in Upstate NY have spent the last several decades trying to figure out how to unload the millstone around our collective necks that is NYC. If they manage to work out something we’ve overlooked, trust me when I say there are very few indeed, north of, say, the Hamptons, that will bitch.
There has been a periodic movement since the Sixties or Seventies to get the City declared the 51st State. And you have to wonder, with as many people as, say, Rhode Island or Connecticut in one small area, if there isn’t some justification.
I’m not belittling your points; I just say it might not be as far-fetched a notion as it seems. Of course, the City also accounts for a fair chunk of the state’s tax income, so there would probably be a good deal of resistance in Albany to NYC splitting away.
That’s precisely my point, Bruce. Despite myths to the contrary cities like New York and Chicago are revenue producers for state governments not net revenue consumers (just as they are for the federal government). The state legislature knows this; there’s not a chance they’d let NYC get away.