51st State-County Secession
August 1, 2023 at 1:00 a.m.
Editor, Times-Union:
One of the other means for a new state to join the Union is for it to separate from a current state as outlined in Article IV Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Several examples of areas in the United States that have considered this at one time or another are Long Island, Chicago, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, southern Florida, among others. The last use of this clause by a part of a state was the formation of West Virginia back in 1863 during the Civil War when a group of pro-Union counties in northwestern Virginia seceded from Virginia in 1861.
A single county seceding from a current state to become a new state has never succeeded as it would involve having to get permission from the state legislature where that county resides and approval from Congress, then having sufficient population and land area with resources along with a stable economy and tax revenue to form a new sate that can accommodate some level of population growth. Below are three counties where consideration has been given to statehood.
Aroostook County, Maine - located in the northern part of Maine. This county is under 7,000 square miles and has a population of under 70,000 residents.
El Dorado County, California - this county is slightly larger than Rhode Island and has under 200,000 residents, less than half the population of Wyoming, the least populated state in the Union.
Sen Bernardino County, California - this county in southern California has nearly 2.2 million residents in 20,105 square miles, making it the largest county by area in the contiguous U.S.
So far none of these counties are close to even having a realistic chance of convincing the legislatures in their state capitals to go along with the idea of becoming a state, let alone Congress. Which is where it should be with over 3,100 counties in the U.S., it would be become unwieldly for a mere dozen or more single counties to become their own states. When the underlaying issues for such discontent in these states needs to be better addressed and resolved. If approval for such a single county were to occur, it should be probably done by constitutional ammendment given the unique situation that this would create.
Alexander Houze
Leesburg
Editor, Times-Union:
One of the other means for a new state to join the Union is for it to separate from a current state as outlined in Article IV Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Several examples of areas in the United States that have considered this at one time or another are Long Island, Chicago, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, southern Florida, among others. The last use of this clause by a part of a state was the formation of West Virginia back in 1863 during the Civil War when a group of pro-Union counties in northwestern Virginia seceded from Virginia in 1861.
A single county seceding from a current state to become a new state has never succeeded as it would involve having to get permission from the state legislature where that county resides and approval from Congress, then having sufficient population and land area with resources along with a stable economy and tax revenue to form a new sate that can accommodate some level of population growth. Below are three counties where consideration has been given to statehood.
Aroostook County, Maine - located in the northern part of Maine. This county is under 7,000 square miles and has a population of under 70,000 residents.
El Dorado County, California - this county is slightly larger than Rhode Island and has under 200,000 residents, less than half the population of Wyoming, the least populated state in the Union.
Sen Bernardino County, California - this county in southern California has nearly 2.2 million residents in 20,105 square miles, making it the largest county by area in the contiguous U.S.
So far none of these counties are close to even having a realistic chance of convincing the legislatures in their state capitals to go along with the idea of becoming a state, let alone Congress. Which is where it should be with over 3,100 counties in the U.S., it would be become unwieldly for a mere dozen or more single counties to become their own states. When the underlaying issues for such discontent in these states needs to be better addressed and resolved. If approval for such a single county were to occur, it should be probably done by constitutional ammendment given the unique situation that this would create.
Alexander Houze
Leesburg