The Supervisor of the Town of  Conklin says he is serious about calling for the municipality to secede from New York State following the decision to ban hydraulic fracture drilling for natural gas in the state indefinitely.

Supervisor Jim Finch says he told the Upstate Association of Towns that they should get together and find a way to secede from the state in order to get gas drilling.

Finch says it’s clear that the revenue from fracking, both in the form of payments for mineral rights to property owners and sales taxes, would have a large impact to the region.

Governor Andrew Cuomo deferred any decision on a continued moratorium on gas exploration to the Department of Environment Conservation Commissioner and the acting Department of Health Commissioner, who concluded December 17 that the health and other risks that could come from fracking had not been sufficiently studied or documented and the economic impact appears less significant than supporters had claimed.

Finch says the secession issue may come up at the January town meeting.

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