Proposal Would Let Staten Island Get Out of N. Y. City

ALBANY, N. Y. — The state Senate has approved a bill to let Staten Island residents vote on whether to secede from New York City.

The proposal was introduced after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in March that the makeup of the city’s powerful Board of Estimate, which rules on spending and projects, violated the principle of one man, one vote.

Staten Island, the city’s smallest borough with about 400,000 residents, has an equal presence on the board with the other four boroughs, including Brooklyn, which has 2.2 million people.

The measure was passed without debate, 34 to 1, in a Sunday session of the Republican-controlled state Senate. It is given little chance of approval in the Assembly, which is dominated by Democrats from the more populous boroughs of the city.