There’s no one alive who can remember, but there was a time when Rye was part of Connecticut. We were part of the Nutmeg State from 1660 to 1683, when we were ceded to New York — but again from 1697 to 1700, after we tried unsuccessfully to secede. It may well be time to consider following in those secessionist footsteps.
I raise the idea in wake of two recent Westchester County actions — both related to Playland.
The county looks to be on the hook for a $34 million settlement in a contract dispute with Standard Amusements, the private operator who has claimed the county violated the terms of their deal. To make matters worse, it’s not at all clear that the county will have the capacity to operate much of Playland at all this year — leaving Rye with a deteriorating white elephant on our shore. What’s more, even if Playland does open, Rye, thanks to a recent court decision, will get no tax revenue from the amusement park’s businesses — despite the fact that we provide police and EMT services when needed.
It’s all part of a very bad deal which Rye has with Westchester County — and would avoid in Connecticut which abolished county government in 1960. Instead, we serve as what the late Senator Moynihan — who decried how much more New York sends to Washington than it gets in return — might call a “donor” city.
The numbers are notable. Westchester County, per data compiled by the State Comptroller’s office, took in some $724 million in real estate property taxes in 2024. The City of Rye contributed $36 million, or almost 5 percent. But with just 15,000 residents compared to the county’s more than 1 million, we make up only some 1.5 percent of the county population. We are, in other words, collective cash cows.
Of course, that could be fine if we got a lot for our money — especially because we pay more in county taxes than in city taxes, notwithstanding the fact that it’s the city that’s providing police, trash pickup, and street repairs. Our county taxes, in contrast, are paying for the six county golf courses — despite the fact that we have our own — $2.3 million for senior services, offered here by Rye Rec, $4.2 million for an 11-person Office of the County Executive, as well as $857 million for social services, as well a share of the county’s $199 million Medicaid budget. There is a case, of course, to be made, that wealthier jurisdictions should help pay for the cost of services in lower-income communities — but in Connecticut such costs are, appropriately, spread statewide, not disproportionately borne by a community that happens to be in the same county, a jurisdiction that has as much to do with historical happenstance as logic.
That 1700 secession movement sputtered when a long-running border dispute was settled and Rye acquiesced to remaining in New York. But perhaps a creative attorney can find a way to reopen the case — and get Westchester County off our backs.
