User:Jrodriguez 05/sandbox



Long Island has made attempts in the past to secede from New York and become its own state. Mentions of Long Island secession range from 1896 to 2010. The proposed 51st state has also speculated the combination of Nassau and Suffolk counties into one county in order to reduce costs.

The state of Long Island would include over 2.7 million people, not including the more populous west end of the island. Nassau County executive Ed Mangano came out in support of such a proposal in April 2010 and was said to be commissioning a study on it.

Any proposal would need to be approved by the New York State Legislature, which has refuted all previous secession efforts, and the United States Congress.

The Long Island statehood movement has been featured on the History Channel series How the States Got Their Shapes.

Secession History
The first known proposal of Long Island as its own state was published in the The New York Times in 1896. Sugar refiner, Adolph Molenhaur, claimed other big cities in New York did not take Long Island into account when making decisions and were spending money without any benefit to Long Island’s interests.

In 1996 a non-binding vote took place in which the idea of secession was approved. However, no further action was taken at that time.

On March 28, 2008, Suffolk County, New York, comptroller Joseph Sawicki and Keith Durgan proposed a plan that would make Long Island (specifically, Nassau and Suffolk counties) the 51st state of the United States of America (or, should Upstate New York and/or Western New York be included in the breakup of New York State, the 52nd or 53rd). Sawicki says that all the Long Island taxpayers' money would stay on Long Island, rather than the funds being dispersed all over the entire state of New York.

Peconic County
In 2009, there was a call for home rule of Long Island by political leaders who were angry about a tax. Suffolk County was on board with the plan but Nassau County showed no support.

In 2010, the Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano had a plan to combine Nassau and Suffolk counties and to secede from New York and wanted to formally look into the idea.

Supporters vs. Non-Supporters
Supporters see secession not only as a major way to save money, but also as a way to keep Long Island unique and to refrain from unwanted changes being made by the state. The non-supporters do not agree with the logistics behind creating a separate state and do not think that the state and the government would agree to it.

An extreme supporter is Cesidio Tallini. He created “Winnecomac”(citation), which is the name for Long Island as a nation separate from the United States. This idea is not popular among Long Islanders, but has gained attention from the media. Tallini created a webpage for Winnecomac which shows the flag that he created as well as a map of the country and a Winnecomac online store. Tallini was featured in the History Channel series How the States Got their Shapes (copy & paste citation), as well as a 2007 article in The New York Times.