List of U.S. State Partition Proposals - New York

New York

• New York City has had proponents of its independent statehood (and even nationhood) as far back as 1787. It has long been commonly recognized that much of the upstate is of a different world than ultra-urban NYC (NYC itself contains multiple counties and collects its own income tax). Such proposals have been supported from the upstate side as well, as some upstate residents also feel that voters in New York City either ignore their economic woes or use their dominance in state government to enact exploitative legislation that favors New York City to the direct detriment of the upstate counties, such as New York State Thruway tolls, state regulated electric rates, water supply availability, garbage disposal, farm labor regulations, natural gas drilling regulations, ineffective economic development schemes, and laws perceived to be too friendly to public service labor unions, and thus want to split off into their own state as well.
• Long Island residents have discussed becoming a new state, on the grounds that their tax money gets sent to the state, yet the money is not used to fund programs in their counties. These proposals may include the entire island (Kings, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk counties) or the two counties (Nassau and Suffolk) that are outside the realm of New York City (with the possible formation of a third, Peconic, from the eastern portion of Suffolk).
• In the early 1980s, when Governor Mario Cuomo proposed the creation of a second Temporary Commission to Study the Future of the Adirondacks, several towns in northern Warren County passed resolutions declaring their intention to leave New York for Vermont, since the first Temporary Commission had led to the creation of the Adirondack Park Agency, whose heavy hand in enforcing its restrictive zoning code had been widely resented. After Cuomo backed off, the proposals died.
• In the 1990s, former State Senator and U.S. Congressman Randy Kuhl, from rural upstate Hammondsport, advocated splitting the state into "New York" and "West New York" and introduced several bills to that effect during his time in the state senate. State senators Joseph Robach, Dale Volker, and Michael Ranzenhofer, all Republicans from Western New York, proposed a nonbinding referendum to gauge support for dividing the state in November 2009. Fred Smerlas, in discussing a potential platform for a Congressional run from Western New York, stated that he would make the separation of New York City and upstate a top priority: "My first act if I ever got elected would be to take a big saw and cut New York City off." Both factions of the Tea Party movement in the Buffalo region support some form of separation.