The State Constitution barred towns from ceding land without a referendum

Evidence

Moses tried threats. Many of the thousand commission and Highway Bureau employees at Belmont Lake lived in Babylon, and therefore, Moses reminded the town’s businessmen, much of the $400,000 monthly payroll was spent in the town. “Doubtless,” he said, “more congenial headquarters for the state’s work on Long Island can be found elsewhere.” But the town was unmoved. The Town Board assured its constituents that there was not going to be any referendum. And without one, there was, under the State Constitution, simply no way in which Moses could get the town’s land. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 1032

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the constitutional constraint that created the whole confrontation — and why Moses was forced to rig the referendum.
• XREF: connects to: Moses won Babylon’s land by rigged voting logistics and busing in employees — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 1045