New York City Councilman looking to secede

New York Sun:

Emboldened by Mayor Bloomberg‘s testimony in Albany this week that the city’s taxpayers pay the state $11 billion a year more than they get back, a City Council member is offering legislation that would begin the process of having New York City secede from New York State.

Peter Vallone Jr., a Democrat who represents Queens, is pushing the idea, and the Council plans to hold a hearing on the possibility of making New York City the 51st state.

“I think secession’s time has definitely come again,” Mr. Vallone, who spearheaded a similar push in 2003, told The New York Sun yesterday. “If not secession, somebody please tell me what other options we have if the state is going to continue to take billions from us and give us back pennies. Should we raise taxes some more? Should we cut services some more? Or should we consider seriously going out on our own?”

This is pretty unlikely. Not only would New York state be a bit crazy to let them go but Article 4 Section 3 Clause 1 doesn’t allow it without Congress’ approval:

New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new state 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, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned, as well as of the Congress.

However, I fully support their plan. I’m a Free State Project member and some of us feel that if things continue getting worse nationally we will start supporting a New Hampshire secession from the union. That is also unlikely but given NH has the right to revolution in its constitution at least it has some legal legitimacy.

It does seem a bit funny to me that NYC is generally known to be fairly liberal place. A whole lot of socialists here. So you’d think that their wealth being redistributed to the rest of the state wouldn’t be a problem.