There Are 15 NY Towns Who Want to Secede From the State

The Sullivan County towns of Fremont and Delaware are part of an organization known as the Upstate New York Towns Association who no longer want to be a part of the state of New York, according to a report in the Times Herald Record.

Fifteen towns in the Southern Tier of the New York are actually talking about seceding from the state and becoming part of Pennsylvania. What is going on?  One of the issues is the decision by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to ban fracking. Fracking is the technique for drilling and extracting natural gas from underground. Some local leaders and landowners from Sullivan County to parts of the Southern Tier feel the practice could have led to local jobs and profit. Fracking is legal in PA. Freemont town Supervisor George Conklin said he's not opposed to the idea of seceding, and that the state banned fracking based on little scientific evidence and that no specific reasons were given.

Another issue, according to Conklin is that they feel that it's much easier to do business in Pennsylvania than in New York. Conklin went on to say that New York City benefits from most of the decisions made by the state government and that the upstate towns are underrepresented.

According to the Times Herald Record, State Sen. John Bonacic says he understands that officials throughout the Southern Tier are upset with the Department of Environmental Conservation's fracking decision. He says he’ll continue to try and ease some of those frustrations.