Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE
Rural New York towns contend they are at “the mercy of tyranny” and are seeking secession to neighboring counties.
Marilla Town Supervisor Earl Gingerich Jr. outlined how his and other towns in Erie County, NY are exploring their options in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.
The idea is not a new one as their rural towns have long felt their county is overrepresented by Buffalo. However, COVID mandates have stirred some to seek prompt relief.
“A lot of our residents that we represent don’t like mandates because they feel that they don’t work or should be a choice,” Gingerich said.
He blamed Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz for making those “in the rural areas feel like we don’t have equal representation through our county legislature and the county executive.”
“Our demographics are different than the urban and bigger suburbs,” Gingerich added in regards to Poloncarz’s one-size-fits-all vaccine mandates that the Town Supervisor says have hurt businesses.
(Video: WGRZ)
Amidst the warning from Poloncarz that secession from Erie County would result in the loss of tax earnings and other shared revenue sources, Gingerich represented Marilla in meeting with delegates from the towns of Wales, Holland, Grand Island, and others to discuss proposals to join Wyoming or Niagara Counties.
Councilman Don Butcher of Wales, speaking for himself, told Fox News he believes the idea has “merit.”
“Right now,” Butcher explained, “we are a rural town at the mercy of the tyranny of the majority of the urban center of the city of Buffalo.”
“We have very little voice in what happens in Erie County,” Butcher went on.
The coalition of small towns has stated through Gingerich that they will conduct a study to find how feasible this recourse would be considering the extensive measures and bureaucracy that restrain such actions.
Rural New Yorkers are not the first seeking refuge in neighboring representation after feeling slighted by their central governing bodies.
The Greater Idaho movement, according to the American Mind, is one supported by conservatives and progressives that aims, “to move relatively poor, conservative, and rural counties from Oregon, Washington, and northern California into Idaho.”
“Frozen out of leadership,” the piece continues, “the people of these rural counties may live in wide-open spaces, but they have been governed by lockdown mandates fit for Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco.”
Another example came last October when some Maryland legislators proposed taking the three westernmost counties of the “Free State” and joining West Virginia.
Forbes reports that the proposal, citing letter signee Maryland House Minority Leader Jason Buckel (R), was meant as a “cry for help” for the region and that they have been ignored by the Democrat-controlled legislature.
Meanwhile, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice (R) has spoken out in favor of such a measure, saying, “Absolutely, without any question, the invitation is wide open.”
These proposals are markedly different than those like TEXIT from the Texas Nationalist Movement that aims to secede entirely from the United States.
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
