Staten Island can legally secede from New York City, but only by clearing a three-step state process: a demonstrated local mandate, passage of authorizing legislation through both chambers of the New York State Legislature, and the governor’s signature. The borough came closest in the 1990s, when 65% of residents voted to leave, and the effort still died in the State Assembly without reaching a floor vote. The legal path has not changed since.
Why the State Controls This, Not the City
New York City’s borders are not the city’s to redraw. Local governments in New York are created by the state and get their powers from it. Article IX of the state constitution gives cities “home rule” over their own property, affairs, and government, but that protection does not reach questions about municipal boundaries.1Ballotpedia. Article IX, New York Constitution The Municipal Home Rule Law, which implements Article IX, sets out what localities can do on their own, and splitting a city apart is not on that list.2NY.Gov. Local Government Home Rule Power
That question was tested in court. During the 1990s push, New York City sued the state, arguing that the law authorizing a Staten Island secession study violated the city’s home rule rights. In City of New York v. State of New York, the Court of Appeals disagreed. The court found that Chapter 773 of the Laws of 1989 was purely advisory: it did not authorize secession, it did not initiate it, and it did not commit the state to anything without a further legislative act. Because the law had no binding force on its own, it did not intrude on home rule and did not require the city’s consent.3Cornell Law. The City of New York, et al., Appellants, v. The State of New York, et al., Respondents
The practical takeaway matters: the state legislature can study, plan for, and authorize secession without New York City’s permission. The city has no veto.
Step 1: A Local Mandate
Before the state would seriously consider breaking up the country’s largest city, Staten Island has to show its residents actually want out. In the 1990s this took the form of a non-binding referendum authorized by state law.
Chapter 773 of the Laws of 1989 set up the mechanism. It created a charter commission made up entirely of Staten Island residents, with instructions to study whether secession was feasible and to draft a charter for a potential independent city. The commission’s work led to a November 2, 1993, referendum asking voters whether they supported secession and the proposed charter. The result was decisive: 65% voted yes.4Fordham Urban Law Journal. The Legality of Staten Island’s Attempt to Secede from New York City
That vote was advisory, as the Court of Appeals emphasized. Nothing the charter commission produced could become law on its own. What it did do was give secession advocates a hard number to carry to Albany, and in early 1994 the commission presented proposed secession legislation to Governor Mario Cuomo and legislative leaders.
Step 2: Passing Both Houses of the State Legislature
This is where secession lives or dies. A bill authorizing Staten Island’s separation would need a simple majority in both the State Senate and the State Assembly.5New York State Senate. How a Bill Becomes a Law On paper that is a low bar. In practice, legislators from across the state would be voting to restructure New York City, and most of them have no reason to say yes.
The 1990s effort showed how this plays out. The State Senate was willing to consider the legislation. The Assembly never voted on it. Speaker Sheldon Silver, who represented a Manhattan district, effectively killed the bill by arguing that the City Council had to send a “home rule message” endorsing secession first. That position contradicted what the Court of Appeals had already decided, but the legal argument did not need to win. The Speaker controlled which bills reached the floor, and this one did not.
The opposition was broader than one legislator. Members from the other four boroughs feared the financial fallout of losing a borough: unsettled municipal bond markets, the cost of untangling shared services, and the risk of explaining a tax increase to constituents because Staten Island wanted to leave. Building a coalition that spans the full legislature has been the single hardest part of the process, and it is where every attempt has stalled.
Step 3: The Governor’s Signature
If a secession bill cleared both chambers, it would go to the governor, who could sign it or veto it.6New York State Library. Bill, Veto and Recall Jackets A veto can be overridden by a two-thirds supermajority in each house, but assembling that kind of margin on an issue this divisive is not realistic.5New York State Senate. How a Bill Becomes a Law
No governor has had to make the call. The process has never advanced past the Assembly.
What Independence Would Actually Cost
The legal steps get the attention, but running a brand-new city is its own problem. A 2024 report from the Independent Budget Office, an official New York City agency, estimated that an independent Staten Island would face a budget gap of at least $170 million. The borough currently benefits from citywide economies of scale, and those savings would disappear.
Among the things a new city would have to build or negotiate from scratch:
- Its own fire department, and some form of police force. The NYPD’s annual budget exceeds $5 billion, and even a proportional share of that level of policing would strain a small city.
- Trash collection, snow removal, hospital operations, and school administration.
- The Staten Island Ferry, which is operated by New York City, would probably continue running but might not remain free. Most bus service would stay in place, because the MTA is a state agency and Staten Island sits within its service district.
- Fresh contracts with cable and internet providers, rather than riding existing citywide agreements.
- Local control over zoning, school boards, and curriculum, which is part of what secession advocates want in the first place.
The picture is not entirely one-sided. Property taxes and other local levies paid by Staten Islanders would stay in Staten Island instead of flowing to the citywide budget. Whether that revenue could cover the cost of independence is the central fiscal question, and the IBO’s analysis suggests it likely could not without either tax increases or service cuts.
Where Things Stand Now
Secession talk on Staten Island has never fully gone away, and it resurfaces whenever borough residents feel alienated from City Hall. The dynamics that drove the 1993 vote are largely intact: geographic separation, political distance from the rest of the city, and a sense that the borough gives more than it gets.
The conversation has also taken a different turn. In early 2026, a majority of the New Jersey Assembly Republican caucus introduced a bill to create a Special Committee on Staten Island Annexation, exploring whether the borough might join New Jersey instead of becoming an independent city. That path faces steeper legal obstacles: transferring territory between states requires congressional approval under the U.S. Constitution.
The route to secession itself is the same route it was thirty years ago. Demonstrate local support, move a bill through both houses of the state legislature, and get the governor to sign it. The Court of Appeals already settled the home rule question in secession advocates’ favor. The obstacle has never been the law. It has been the politics of persuading legislators across New York State that breaking up New York City is worth the risk.