Posted on 10/24/2021 9:09:24 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - Three Maryland counties are calling to secede from their own state are hoping to find a new home in West Virginia.
The announcement has many asking, is this even possible?
Lawmakers from Garrett, Allegany, and Washington Counties sent letters to the West Virginia legislature stating, “We believe this arrangement may be mutually beneficial for both parties.”
Delegate Gary Howell from Mineral County says there are advantages to both states.
“For Maryland, these counties are their poorer counties and they actually send more money from Annapolis than Annapolis gets from them so they are a drain on Maryland resources. In west Virginia, it would be the exact opposite, it would benefit us,” said Howell.
But how does a proposal like this become official?
Chair of the political science department at wvu dr. John kilwein says the constitution requires both states to agree - something he says would be very unlikely.
“All states are historic but it’s a very historic state and so you’d be chopping off a bit of [maryland] at the end and you know there’s just that sense of geographic pride,” said Dr. Kilwein.
Howell says the three counties are very similar to West Virginia though.
“In fact, they’re actually more typical west Virginia counties than they are Maryland counties, so they’d fit in with us,” said Howell.
While West Virginia may be looking to reclaim the congressional seat it lost in the recent census, Kilwein says the same issue could be the very reason the move would fail.
“That’s probably why Annapolis would never agree to it because they’d probably lose a district,” said Dr. Kilwein.
The governor called for a special session in mid-November to make the offer official.
As Viking2002 noted above, WashCounty residents either lived there for generations, or went there in the 80s-90s to get away from urbane living. Since then, it's become a target for land-use/slash/social revolution, while the old country churches and graveyards are having to combine into two- and three-church parishes up to 10 miles apart, with one pastor to cover all services on Sundays, and musical chairs around the far-flung parish sites for church council events.
As an example of the land-use wheeling and dealing, locals have fought to try to stop additional truck stops on highways around Hagerstown, because they are prime locations for prostitution and trafficking. But of course, the proposals get approved:
Site work begins on long-appealed truck-stop project near Hagerstown Regional Airport
maryland is such a dissappointment... free state... my assateague...
everytime i think it can’t get any worser... hold my beer.
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