New York rural towns weigh seceding from mostly urban and suburban county over COVID mandates

Multiple towns in Erie County, New York, are slowly exploring options to secede, saying the county is overly represented by Buffalo and does not reflect their interests.

Marilla Town Supervisor Earl Gingerich Jr. told Fox News Digital on Sunday that the idea has been festering for years but gathered steam during the pandemic.

“Us in the rural areas feel like we don’t have equal representation through our country legislature and the county executive,” Gingerich said. “Our demographics are different than the urban and bigger suburbs.”

Gingerich blamed Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz for pushing what he regarded as strict one-size-fits-all vaccine mandates that he argued have hurt businesses.

“A lot of our residents that we represent don’t like mandates because they feel that they don’t work or should be a choice,” Gingerich said.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Poloncarz for comment but did not hear back before publication. Last week, he warned that communities leaving for other counties would lose sales tax and other shared revenue, according to The Buffalo News.- READ MORE