Supervisor Says Secession Suggestion Wasn’t Serious

The Conklin Town Supervisor says he wasn’t really serious when he said the Southern Tier of New York should secede and become part of Pennsylvania after an indefinite ban on high-volume hydraulic fracture drilling for natural gas in New York was declared in December.

Supervisor James Finch made the comments to the Wall Street Journal following Governor Andrew Cuomo’s announcement that there would be no natural gas drilling in the near future.

Finch said it was his opinion that the area could benefit economically from drilling as, he said, Pennsylvania has done.

Finch said his comment was made at the spur of the moment and went further than expected.

Finch also did bring the matter up at a meeting of the Upstate New York Towns Association and some other leaders of towns around the region have said they support shifting New York’s southern border northward and be annexed by the Keystone State.