A New Report: Should Staten Island Secede from the City?

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It's a question many Staten Islanders have asked. According to a new report from the city's Independent Budget Office, doing so would entail enormous changes for the forgotten borough. The report reads, “In short, secession is highly complex, would take many years to implement, and would either be more expensive for Staten Island residents, require an independent Staten Island to reduce benefits and services to residents, or both."

This analysis was carried out in response to a request made by Southern Brooklyn City Council Member Justin Brannan to the IBO last year. “In the beginning there was darkness – and then there were shadowboxing Staten Island politicians talking tough about seceding from New York City,” Brannan wrote in an email. “Cut off from the benefits of citywide sales and property tax, tourism revenue, and overall economic growth, a seceded Richmond County could not afford to provide police, fire, trash pick-ups, schools, libraries, hospitals, and other absolutely essential human services to its population without an insanely exorbitant increase in taxes just to maintain today’s status quo.”

Brannan's jurisdiction does not include Staten Island.

Staten Island Republican Council Member Joe Borelli has a differing opinion. "The idea that anyone can predict what a government that hasn’t been elected yet will do is bizarre,” Borelli wrote in a text, noting that despite warnings back in the ’90s that taxes could go up if Staten Island seceded, 65% of residents voted in favor of secession in a 1993 referendum. “Guess what? The damned taxes went up anyway and we still have no say,” Borelli said.