MARILLA, N.Y. — The Town of Marilla on Wednesday evening hosted a meeting with representatives from towns around Erie County to begin discuss the possibility of secession.

Marilla Supervisor Earl Gingerich, R, said there were supervisors or council members from six municipalities.

While not disclosing all of them, he says Marilla and Wales are among those potentially interested.

"We have generally felt, especially in recent years, that the rural part of the county is not been listened to, and our issues are different than the urban or even the bigger suburbs and they're not addressing our concerns," Gingerich said.

Wales Supervisor Tim Howard said the outer ring of Erie County has more in common with neighboring counties like Wyoming and Niagara.

"The rural communities don't have a real voice in Erie County government because it's such a large and mostly densely populated county," he said.

Gingerich said the county's handling of COVID restrictions, of which Marilla has openly defied over the last several months, has brought the issue to the forefront, but the idea of leaving for neighboring Wyoming County has been building for years.

"Unless there's a drastic change which we don't see in the next election or an attitude change by the county government to address these issues and make it so we would not move forward, we're going to keep going,” he said. “This is not smoke and mirrors or a political statement.”

Attorney Todd Aldinger was in the meeting to walk local leaders through the potential process, which he believes has never been done at the county level before. It would include either all potential municipalities agreeing to annexation or 20% of a town's voters petitioning for it.

That would be followed by public comment, a feasibility study and a referendum vote.

"If any of the counties, either Erie or Wyoming says no, or they both say no, then Marilla can institute a special proceeding in New York State Supreme Court under Article 17 municipal law to force the counties to accept the changes if they can prove it's in the overall public interest," Aldinger said.

Erie County Legislature Minority Leader Joe Lorigo, C-West Seneca, said both Wales and Marilla do have vocal representation in him.

"As someone who's struggled with getting things accomplished under this current Democratic majority, I understand the pain that Marilla's feeling but leaving doesn't solve anything,” Lorigo said. “Leaving doesn't help achieve their goal. We need to work to change things the Democratic way. The legislative way. There's a process for a reason."

Gingerich said Marilla is looking to do a preliminary study before it takes any more steps forwards and may pool resources with other municipalities.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz responded to the idea of these towns, including Holland and Grand Island that were also reportedly involved, seceding with a lengthy statement outlining the tax revenue losses they would see, saying in part:

"Elected officials who are exploring the idea of seceding from Erie County to become a part of a neighboring county should be aware of several severe financial and service impacts that such action would have on their constituents. These range from budget-busting losses of revenue that necessitate large town property tax increases, dramatically increased county property taxes that would have to be paid to neighboring counties, to greatly decreased or even eliminated provision of services, potentially including libraries, law enforcement and other services."

He suggested Marilla, for instance, could see as much as a 33% property tax increase as a result.