Upstate groups want to secede from New York

Joseph Spector | Gannett Albany Bureau

ALBANY, N.Y. — More than a dozen groups in support of gun rights and hydraulic fracturing are organizing a rally Sunday to build support for turning upstate New York into a separate state.

At the crux of their current frustrations is Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, his support of the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013, and his decision last year to direct state regulators to ban fracking for natural gas.

"Why secession? Secession is about reclaiming the economic opportunities upstate has lost and restoring the liberties Upstate residents once enjoyed," the gun group, Shooters Committee on Public Education, said in a statement. "Downstate has dominated upstate for decades, and upstate has no future in a state controlled by New York City's needs and desires."

The groups chose Bainbridge, N.Y., a village of fewer than 1,500 residents about 25 miles north of the Pennsylvania border, for their two-hour rally 1 to 3 p.m. ET Sunday. It is located in part of the Marcellus shale formation that extends into New York and contains vast natural gas reserves.

The secession effort is not the first time activists have asked to split the state in two. GOP state Sen. Joseph Robach of Greece, N.Y., introduced bills in 2009 and 2011 to allow counties to have a referendum on the idea of seceding.

The bills never have made it out of committee. Long Island lawmakers also pitched the idea of a separate state for their counties earlier this year.

This time around the pro-secession groups are studying two options:

• Requiring the legislatures of New York and Pennsylvania to approve the split as well as Congress.

• Creating a smaller New York state government with two autonomous regions, upstate to be called New Amsterdam and downstate to retain the name New York. That would require either legislative approval or a constitutional convention.

What the groups may not have investigated is revenue.

The Center for Governmental Research in Rochester, N.Y., found that upstate New York benefits from the tax revenue sent to Albany from New York City and its wealthy suburbs. Wall Street alone represents about 19% of all state revenue.

What part of the state is considered upstate New York?

New York state government's definition is roughly what lies outside the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's commuter rail area. That would join Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties with New York City and Long Island. Some consider everything upstate except for Long Island and the boroughs of New York City; others would draw a line east from the Pennsylvania border and define everything to the north as upstate.

Secession has worked before, but it's been a long time: Vermont split from New York in 1777, eventually becoming a U.S. state in 1791; Maine split from Massachusetts in 1820 after residents launched a 35-year campaign for statehood; and West Virginia became a separate state in 1863 after the rest of Virginia joined the Confederacy during the Civil War.

The groups organizing Sunday's event include Americans for Restoring the Constitution, Deposit Gas Group, Divide New York State Caucus, FundamentalHumanRights.org, Landowner Advocates of New York, New Yorkers United for Kids, NY2A, Oath Keepers, Red Dragon, Sapbush Road Group, Shooters Committee on Public Education, Tri-County Tea Party, Upstate New York Towns Association and We the People of New York.