Could long island become a state if new york agreed?

Answer 1

Not by itself. Congress also has to agree to this Constitutional version of " Split and Merge". Article 4 of the US Constitution provides that Congress may admit new states into the Union, but that no new state may be made within the jurisdiction of any other state without the consent of that state's legislature and of Congress. The New York legislature would vote to split from the rest of New York state, then Congress would vote to allow it to merge with the rest of the Union. It is not a simple "Recategorizing" of Long Island by the New York legislature as a separate state. One could argue that Long Island is not "within" the jurisdiction of New York state because part of it is coastline and not within New York, but this is not the way Article 4 is interpreted. Long Island is within the jurisdiction of New York because it is part of New York now. Ironically, Long Island is sometimes referred to as the 51st state, because when you ask any Long Islanders where they are from and they will say "Long Island". They won't say "New York".