Posted on 02/27/2019 11:47:11 AM PST by Impala64ssa
In New York state government news, the topic of splitting the state into separate upstate and downstate entities has popped up again at the Capitol.
A lawmaker representing a suburban-rural district in eastern New York this week proposed legislation that would authorize a study into the up-front and long-term costs of separating the upstate and downstate regions into two states, along with the legal implications and economic impact.
Meanwhile, lawmakers will return to Albany on Tuesday for a three-day workweek, their first since the Legislature convened Jan. 9 for its 2019 session.
Heres a look at stories making news and upcoming events:
SPLITTING THE STATE:
The idea of splitting upstate New York and the New York City metro area into two separate states comes up periodically in Albany, never getting beyond the proposal stage. Republican state Sen. Daphne Jordan says its time to at least examine what a split would look like and cost.
Lets look at it, get definitive figures, said Jordan, from Halfmoon in Saratoga County.
Jordans measure would create a 15-member working group overseen by the state comptrollers office, tasked with figuring out the cost of separating long-established state agencies, settling land disputes, and examining constitutional steps needed to split the state. The group would then present the results of its study to the governor and Legislature. Ultimately, it would take an act of Congress to split New York into two states.
Jordans measure defines downstate as all five New York City boroughs, Long Islands Nassau and Suffolk counties, and Westchester and Rockland counties. The states 53 other counties would be considered upstate.
Theres all kind of things being passed (in Albany) that arent necessarily of upstate interest, said Jordan, a first-year lawmaker whose 43rd Senate district covers parts of Saratoga, Rensselaer and Washington counties and all of Columbia County.
Splitting upstate from downstate has been discussed on and off in Albany for years. Supporters of the idea have pointed to the growing divide between the two regions political and social leanings.
Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by more than 2-to-1 statewide, with most of that dominant voting block concentrated in the New York City metro area. With every statewide elected office, the Assembly and now the Senate controlled by Democrats, Republican upstate lawmakers say their regions needs will be ignored more than ever.
In 2015, some upstate residents angry over earlier passage of gun-control laws and a ban on hydraulic fracturing proposed that their towns along the Pennsylvania border succeed and become part of the Keystone State. Four years later, full Democratic control in Albany has resulted in a string of progressive laws being passed already this year, fostering a growing feeling among many in upstate New York that its time to seriously look into splitting off upstate from downstate.
The impulse is understandable. There are real differences between upstate and downstate, said E.J. McMahon of the Albany-based Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank.
But given the upstate regions lagging economy and shrinking tax base, McMahon cautions that losing access to downstate-generated revenues would be felt from the Adirondacks to Buffalo.
Upstate would need to do a really significant reset of the way government is funded and what it spends, and upstate politicians have not exactly been clamoring for the reforms that it would take to make that happen, he said. Jordans measure doesnt have a sponsor in the Assembly.
Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, called Jordans proposal the Godzilla of pandering.
She responded by saying she loves monster movies and comparing the impact of the governors policies on New York as the curse of Dr. Cuomostein.
BACK IN ALBANY: The Legislature is scheduled to return to Albany for its first three-day workweek of the 2019 session.
So far, other than the Legislatures brief formal opening day on Jan. 9, lawmakers have been in session for two-day stretches five times. Theyre scheduled to be in session this week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, followed by a 16-day March work schedule ahead of the new state budget deadline of April 1.
There was a flurry of action during the sessions first month, with lawmakers passing legislation strengthening gun control rules, protecting abortion rights and relaxing the statute of limitations for child molestation victims to seek criminal charges or file lawsuits against their alleged abusers. All have been signed into law by Cuomo.
The pace has slowed some, however, as lawmakers try to reach agreements on a number of pending issues, including criminal justice reform, while continuing to negotiate with the Cuomo administration over his $175 billion budget proposal.
The New York State of Mind is schizophrenic.
NY can’t afford 1 state let alone 2
1) Constitution says a State can only be subdivided with its own consent (Virginia had left the Union which opened the door for West Virginia, as letting them go was made a condition of re-admission).
2) Albany and NYC will NEVER EVER EVER give up their parasitic hosts in Syracuse, Buffalo, Rochester, Binghamton and elsewhere as their thirst for revenue is only exceeded by their lust for power.
This is going nowhere.
Actually, all they would need is to pass fracking and upstate would be rich.
Go ahead you stupid morons. Keep it up. We’ll divide Texas into 20 states and you stupid maggots will never win another election.
One Word:
FRACKING!
Also, split-off Philly into NJ.
Split-off SoCA back into Mexico.
New York and New Amsterdam?
I like it. Anything that rid us of New York City is good.
Why they changed it, I can't say/People just liked it better that way
Excise NYC from the union entirely. Take urban NJ with you.
Just a money making boondogle for those insiders who would be on the “working group” and their staffs.
Some have talked of such splits in other states too.
I heard thd western part of Maryland wanted to secede. That part of the state is very different socially and politically from the rest of the state.
I’m sure much of Illinois is very different from Chicago.
I bet we could find the same situation in other states, where a major urban area dominates the state politically.
The group of universities known as the Ivy League schools were established in colonial times to be the higher learning institutions of the northern Thirteen Colonies. Each northern colony had one school: Harvard (Massachusetts), Dartmouth (New Hampshire), Brown (Rhode Island), Yale (Connecticut), Columbia (New York), Princeton (New Jersey) and Penn (Pennsylvania).
Cornell was established in the 1850s. By that time, there was already a growing sense that "upstate" and "downstate" New York were effectively two different states.
Splitting California would be a good idea also.
All of what you say is true, but actually doing it will require an amendment to the Constitution. Chicago and Philly aren’t giving up their parasitic hosts either.
Splitting NY into two states would probably mean two more Republican senators. Upstate New York is mostly Republican. If Upstate New York were a separate state in 2016, Trump would have won it by about 100,000 votes.
Agreed! It’s only doable if they form a new gubmint and secede from the US!
They could legalize fracking and charge NYC big bucks for the hydro generated juice from Niagara.
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