Partition and secession in New York

That rebellion was more heavily supported in the lower Hudson Valley, near modern New York City, than it was in the Albany area, which remained loyal to the English crown (at the time, the Glorious Revolution was underway in England).

Although the rebellion was settled in 1691 when Leisler was executed, tensions between the upper and lower Hudson Valley remained high for another two decades afterward.

After the United States Declaration of Independence, the people of the New Hampshire Grants (as the region was then called) could no longer hope for redress from the courts of England.

The question of recognizing it and admitting it to the Union was occasionally discussed in the Continental Congress, but New York's representatives successfully opposed it.

In the battle over the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1787–1788, Governor George Clinton in Albany, wishing to preserve his power, led the local Anti-Federalists in opposition, with support for the Constitution coming from Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists, who were largely urbanites and saw opportunity in a stronger national union and published The Federalist Papers as their manifesto in several New York City newspapers, including The Independent Journal.

There was a large divide, and with the recent independence of Vermont, a threat of secession of New York City and the southern counties to join the new Federal government.

With secession threatening to marginalize Governor Clinton and a lightly developed upstate, the Constitution was ratified and the crisis passed.

But the idea of leaving the United States proved too radical even in the turmoil of 1861 and was poorly received, especially after the Southern bombardment of Fort Sumter starting on April 12.

Coincidentally, the upstate locale of Town Line, New York voted to secede from the Union, contributing five soldiers to the Confederate troops.

Like Mayor Wood, Council Member Vallone emphasized the fiscal benefits of secession, with revenue now derived not from tariffs, but from Wall Street.

Support for a separation from within upstate surged in the second half of the 20th century, possibly due in part to several U.S. Supreme Court rulings (see Baker v. Carr and Reynolds v. Sims) that established a mandate of one man, one vote in all state legislatures.

The rulings gave New York City significant legislative advantages over upstate, which coincidentally entered a prolonged economic and population decline at around the same time.

[21] Republican Assemblyman Stephen Hawley introduced a bill in February 2013 to give each county an opportunity to provide feedback on potential partition of the state.

Hawley, who had introduced similar bills previously, supported the idea on the grounds that the financial and logistic situations in each region of the state were vastly different.

[citation needed] The "Greater City" exists as a result of actions of the New York State Legislature, and, as such, could be reduced in size by the same mechanism.

Many Staten Island politicians, including Senator John J. Marchi and Assemblyman Eric N. Vitaliano supported the movement.

[28][29] The Staten Island secession movement was defused by the election of Rudy Giuliani as New York City mayor on the same ballot.

Two of the borough's biggest demands were closing the Fresh Kills Landfill and making the Staten Island Ferry free, both of which were done.

[30] In 2019, New York City councilman Joe Borelli announced his plan to introduce another set of bills to study the feasibility of secession.

[29] In December 2019, Michael Reilly, a Republican assemblyman from Staten Island, expressed interest in joining upstate (the “New Amsterdam” Region) in the event it broke off from New York City.

Such an action would require: (A) "one-fifth (1/5) of the owners of land in the proposed new town sign a petition agreeing to the map and charter"; (B) "must have at least two thousand (2000) people residing in it"; and (C) "If a majority of those voting approve of it" at the "next election day in November".

In addition to the sponsors there are several co-sponsors, notably of which includes recent Assembly minority leader Brian Kolb of District 131.

An alternate plan is having municipalities to use the NYS constitution home rule clause to encourage the legislature to submit the amendment to the voters.