Tuesday, October 13, 2026
An idea to split New York state into three regions was the focus of a discussion Venus Family Restaurant in West Hempstead on March 27.
“So here on Long Island we have a robust economy and we give a lot of money up to Albany that we don't get a lot of return back,” said Chris Wales, an organizer and advocate for the amendment. He pointed to examples such as annual school budget that he felt “turned everything upside down”
Under the proposal, Article 20 of the state constitution would be changed to and a new amendment would be added dividing the state into three regions: New Amsterdam, New York and Mountak.
The Montauk Region would consist of Long Island as well Rockland and Westchester counties. The New Amsterdam Region would consist of the majority of upstate New York, including Albany, Cortland, Madison, Monroe, Montgomery, Niagara and several other upstate counties. The New York Region would consist of the New York City boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island and Queens.
This is not the first time this proposal has been submitted in Albany. It was proposed during the 2019-2020, 2021-2022, and 2023-2024 legislative sessions. Each time it was proposed, it ended up dying in the Judiciary Committee.
Under the proposal the statewide legislative bodies — Assembly and Senate — would be abolished and replaced with a Regional Senate and a Regional Assembly, with the proposed New Amsterdam Regional Senate having 24 senators, the Montauk Region would have 12 senators, and the New York Regional Senate would have 34 senators.
“We want to make our priorities first and to serve the local community,” said Wales. “That's why we think three autonomous regions will work better.”
Each region would have its own regional governor, however the position would be with little to no power. The Senate and Assembly would have full governing ability to create laws benefiting their citizens and create economic prosperity based on their own regional resources under the proposed plan.
The group argues that all that is needed to facilitate this is an amendment to the state Constitution. They also argue that by forming regions, not a new state, or moving counties between states, Congress can be legally bypassed.
Wales said that meetings of the group will not be a monthly event, instead, they will be aligned with the schedule of the state legislative session. The meeting finished with letters being written to the attendees representatives in state government advocating for the passage of the constitutional amendment.
“I came to the conclusion that it was up to me to find a solution,” Wales said. “With enough changes that have been made federally, that have reshaped the landscape this is a way to guarantee that we don't have to wait four years for a reset in Washington. We can fix our own state in our own time.”
