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The new town won’t come into existence until 2020, unless expedited by special legislation enacted in Albany after state lawmakers return in January for the 2018 session. Assemblyman James Skoufis, a Woodbury Democrat, has said he is writing a bill that would speed up the effective date for Palm Tree and secure additional state aid for Monroe-Woodbury School District to recoup some revenue it will lose. Monroe-Woodbury will lose a relatively small amount because it will cede 220 acres to Kiryas Joel School District to put all of the future Palm Tree in Kiryas Joel School District’s domain.
The Hasidic community of Kiryas Joel reportedly will become the first haredi Orthodox town in the United States after voters in Monroe, New York, overwhelmingly backed a referendum on secession.
On Tuesday, over 80 percent of Monroe voters backed the measure on Kiryas Joel, a village of over 20,000 Yiddish-speaking Jews associated with the Satmar Hasidic sect, to form the state’s first new town in 35 years. The Town of Palm Tree — an English translation of the Satmar rebbe’s surname, Teitelbaum — should come into existence in 2020, unless lawmakers speed up the process.
Source : JTA