Sawicki presents 51st state proposal for Long Island

Looking to whack Albany with a political two-by-four, Suffolk Comptroller Joseph Sawicki and Dowling College agreed to launch a new feasibility study on the economics of Long Island seceding to become the 51st state.

Sawicki and Martin Cantor, director of Dowling's Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute, announced the six-month study at a breakfast Friday on the Oakdale campus before local business and government leaders.

Both Sawicki and Cantor acknowledged such a split may be tough to sell politically to the rest of the state, but it is important to raise the issue to underline how much the region contributes to state operations and how much less it gets back -- a gap of $2.9 billion.



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