[Woodman]

It passed by a large majority (70-80%) but was blocked by the then Governor Mario. There is a home rule provision in the State Constitution that would have allowed the City to determine that the impact was too high on them to allow the change. In other words, Tax revenues are huge from Staten Island.

Interesting trivia is that we would have been the 22 largest city in the US at the time.

The reason the movement started in the first place was because the City Charter was rewritten by State Supreme Court mandate to have proportional representation. Under the original City Charter (Where the city of Richmond) which joined all 5 Burroughs gave equal representation for each one. Basically we got screwed from 20% say in governing the city to less than 5% say. Things have gone down hill ever since.

[kearnyirish2]

Interesting; thanks!

[SeekAndFind]

Here in Long Island, there has been a quiet movement to SECEDE from the State of New York to form the 51st state of the United States ( bringing Obama’s dream of 57 states closer to reality ).

It has quite some support, especially from the more well to do folks living here.

[OddLane]

You shouldn't count on the government.

There are already ways of helping out those who are suffering locally.

And they need a lot of it, trust me.