State flag experts, meanwhile, have long found the design of New York's flag uninspiring. The flag simply features the coat of arms in the middle of a solid blue background.

For more than a century, Utah’s flag has paid homage to the state’s founding settlers: the sego lilies they subsisted on when food was scarce, a beehive symbolizing their communal spirit. From ...

But it would also require Cuomo and lawmakers to do what no one has done in New York in 138 years: Change the coat of arms, which has elements dating back to the Revolutionary War.