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Angry at Albany for passing a bill that imposes payroll taxes to help bailout the MTA and other rankling decisions, Republican lawmakers on Long Island are calling for a study for examine secession from the rest of the state. Suffolk Comptroller Joseph Sawicki said, "The state of Long Island has always been a romantic idea, its been fun to talk about and exciting to discuss. Now, it's become a matter of economic survival," and points out that Albany gets $3 billion more from Long Island than it gives back. However, Newsday notes there are some worries—for instance, Legislator DuWayne Gregory (D-Amityville) explained, "Is there going to be an impression that the Long Island delegation, that they're wacky, that they're whackos? That's the concern that I have." Well, secession is always a fun way to get people riled up—Staten Island has considered it, as have folks in NYC (NYC gives around $10 billion to the state that it doesn't get back).
Long Island Lawmakers Order Statehood Study
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proving once and for all that LI is as dumb as texas.
They're not the only ones looking for a way out:
http://albanysinsanity.wnymedia.net/blogs/2009/05/06/t-shirts-for-51st-wny-state/
Face it, New York is broken...The government is out of control, people adn businesses are fleeing, and the only thing the powers that be care about is protecting their fiefdom and shoveling money to their chosen constituencies
And Hotstepper, there's a difference between seceding from a state, and seceding from the nation
West Virginia used to be a part of Virginia...No Reason Long Island couldn't say "smell you later" to the downstate mess
Actually, there's a huge reason why LI couldn't do it. NY would have to agree to such a split.
West Virginia is a very unique case, and unless we're going to have another civil war, I don't see it happening again.
But Long Island IS the downstate mess!
If they're fighting for lower state taxes and responsible state government...in short the very antithesis of the City-led Albany government...then they are not the mess
Sheldon Silver is the mess
Its not a terrible idea. The NY state government is broken enough that people should be looking for a way out. Plus New Yorkers are underrepresented in the US Senate because the state is so large.
Nassau and Suffolk counties combined have about the same population as Arkansas, just a little bit smaller than Connecticut. Land area and population is bigger than Rhode Island or Delaware. There is even a sort of distinctive Long Island culture, though its usually the subject of mockery.
I'd rather see a NYC metropolitan area state as making more economic sense, but I'm encouraged that there is no reason for the same state to include both the Hamptons and Buffalo.
"Plus New Yorkers are underrepresented in the US Senate because the state is so large."
I sincerely hope that was just a dumb mistake on your part and that you don't truly believe that statement should be considered in any form. If the former, then you're forgiven. If the latter, then you should really bone up on US Government and Politics. Every state gets 2 Senators and ONLY 2 Senators. The House of Representatives is where the amount of people that live in each state comes into play, and NY, just like the rest of the country, gets a specific amount of the 435 seats, which is a percentage based on the population of the country vs population of each state.
Ah..always have to bring in Buffalo don't we? Good riddance to downstate then. You can stop sucking up all of the money that hard working Buffalonians pay in outrageous taxes (yes, it's not just you Long Islanders that have high taxes) and maybe Albany can actually start caring about taking care of the rest of the cities in NY.
Also, your comment about the Hamptons and Buffalo makes no sense. So you think that states should be designated according to areas of high and low income levels? Sure, why not just throw all of the poor people into one giant poor state and let all the Hamptonites live in peace...sadly, with no one to manicure their lawns.
Yeah, and where does all the revenue Suffolk and Nassau collect from ticketing folks on the LIE go?
no really secede... go away.... keep you're own money... run yourselves into the ground.
NYS's already running us all into the ground
Long Island lawmakers have been a prominent part of the state's dysfunction, so secession isn't exactly a cure for that.
Why stop there? Why not make Suffolk and Nassau their own separate states? Or give them back to England and the Netherlands respectively?
Secessionists always like to think that their region is the best. Would you rather live in the Balkans, where everyone gets their own country? Because that worked out well.
So we'd have a new swing state worth around 13 electoral votes. In other words, a less cosmopolitan Virginia.
Does that mean that the state funding for the LIRR would go to the MTA?
Do it. The outer boroughs should look at seceding from the city. Texas isn't dumb.
I really, really wish I never heard of Amy Fisher.
name the new state "Buttafucco".
"Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said it's fine to talk about Long Island statehood as a publicity stunt so long as no tax money is spent studying the idea."
What he said. It is a publicity stunt. It absolutely won't happen, and they all know that. Spending money on a "study" while complaining about budget issues is simply stupid.
The ironic part is Long Island wants to leave New York, NYC wants to leave NY, and most of upstate NY wants to leave NY.
(NYC gives around $10 billion to the state that it doesn't get back).
This is such a retarded argument. 95% of the state's commerce takes place on like 5% of the land. There's a lot of infrastructure around the state.
Anyone notice the two biggest Democrat-run states have the most dire economic problems right now?
How are Florida and Michigan "Democrat-run"?
Michigan is entirely a blue state and Florida is 50% at this point if not more.
I was referring to New York and California.
I think I've already smacked down this myth of yours in the past.
The states with the highest projected FY2010 deficit as % of previous state budget are (as of March 13):
Nevada 30%
Arizona 29.8%
California 25.6%
NY 24.3%
CT 23.1%
Florida 22.6%
LA 21.7%
NJ 21.6%
VT 20.8%
Alabama has a big mid-year FY2009 deficit but has no released numbers for 2010.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=711
If anyone has any data that is more recent, please post.
is she still alive?
ouch- longacre you just got OWNED. Politburo just smacked you upside the head, then went and smacked your mama for even having you as a thought in her head. Ouch.