But the Constitution is also quick to point out the superseding authority of the state that created those localities. According to a ruling in 1929 by Chief Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo of the Court of Appeals, Albany takes precedence if the state has a substantial interest in the “property, affairs or government” of a locality.

In other words, the state can butt into a locality’s business whenever it sees fit.

Albany mandates lots of other things that villages, towns, cities and counties (New York City has five of them) can and can’t do and what they have to pay for.

Sure, New York City voters are entitled to choose their State Senators and Assembly members, but in Albany, legislators from the five boroughs are outnumbered by the ones elected upstate and in the suburbs.

The conflict is not unique to this state, although it is more acute in places with partisan splits like New York, where Democrats control the city and Republicans have had a veto power in the Senate.

Brooks Rainwater, director of the Center for City Solutions of the National League of Cities, said that “bigger cities in general are passing more progressive legislation while state legislatures are trying to limit the authority of those localities.” He said legislatures are more vulnerable to lobbying by special interests because “local officials are closer to the people they represent and are more responsive.”