As much as I agree with splitting this state,I think they have an uphill battle here…
U.S. Constitution: Article IV, 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.
I still say take the point at Albany and split it from there. Our biggest problem is we have to bow down and kiss the rings of the Albany leadership to do anything. We do not have control of our end of the state, they do for everything and they like it that way. What we need to do is get government control back to us on the local levels and not in the hands of politicians 300 miles away.
Long Island — bigger than 19 states and more populous than all but the country’s three largest cities — is big enough to stand on its own, secede and become the 51st state, said Suffolk Comptroller Joseph Sawicki.
Sawicki will formally renew his call to make Nassau and Suffolk — with their 2.8 million people — its own state at an 8 a.m. breakfast Friday morning sponsored by Dowling College’s Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute.
“Before you dismiss me as being on the fringe of craziness, just imagine: Taxes raised on Long Island would be spent on Long Island,” said Sawicki, dusting off an idea that he first proposed as a state assemblyman in 1991.
Sawicki said the region in 2004 sent $8.1 billion to Albany in taxes and fees but got back only $5.2 billion. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the way these numbers add up,” he said. “It leaves Long Island paying for the rest of the state.”
Such local movements have been a recurring issue across New York for years. Long Island’s East End has sought a separate Peconic County, Staten Island has sought to break away from New York City and Queens Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. has also pushed to make New York City a state unto itself. Most such efforts fail because the rest of the Empire State balks at such political amputations.
But Martin Cantor, the institute’s director, said the sagging economy and the state’s turmoil — amid resignation of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, the ascension of successor David Paterson and questions over control of the state Senate — make the time ripe for reviving the idea of Long Island statehood.
“It makes sense now because whether it be Spitzer or Paterson, no attention is being paid to Long Island,” Cantor said.
Reaction from top Long Island figures was mixed. Glen Cove Mayor Ralph Suozzi said, “There should be some serious people looking at this,” noting that Long Island communities would benefit because tax revenue would remain here. However, he worried that separating from New York would mean reproducing state services here, which could mean higher taxes.
Others were emphatic against the notion. “It’s asinine,” Smithtown Supervisor Patrick Vecchio.
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackAs this article conclusively demonstrates, Independent Long Island (ILI) doesn’t have to kiss no king’s ring, especially one in Albany, New York State:
http://ilination.net/ILI-country-easier.html
Independent Long Island (ILI), born on 20 August 2007, in fact is already alive and well, has 12 actual citizens, its own flag and symbols, and even a one-acre embassy with a flying flag down in Trenton, Missouri.
ILI’s flag, counting the US and Ireland, since ILI’s flag was first made in the US state of North Carolina, and designed in Ireland, has already visited six real countries or territories: US, Ireland, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Mexico, and Canada.
ILI is so technically advanced that it doesn’t just run its own top-level domain (TLD), but also its own more inclusive Internet! Read our short, yet already incredible history:
http://ilination.net/history.html
Wake up. Although I wish him well, the “Long Island” proposed by Suffolk Comptroller Joseph Sawicki is not even the full geographic island of Long Island you have pictured above. That entity is in fact only Independent Long Island or ILI, there are no imitations, and it is already sovereign according to the rules of the declarative theory of statehood, and the Montevideo Convention. ILI can only become more sovereign in time, and with more support.
The only thing the US government can truly prevent is another “nation” from joining it (surprised?), but what kind of independence is that?
Why would the full geographic Long Island wish to rejoin the US after leaving New York State? Tax money, and an abundance of it, still leaves the state, and never returns. It mainly goes to states like these:
District of Columbia
New Mexico
Mississippi
Alaska
Louisiana
Moreover, the US government can’t prevent ILI from being recognised from other countries (where real independence and sovereignty under international law begins), or from joining the Commonwealth (since the US is not a member of the same).
Wake up, up friend, and raise the consciousness of others as well: there are new Thomas Jefferson’s in your midst, and you haven’t even noticed.
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