California Voters to Weigh In on Radical Plan to Split Into Three States on November
California voters will now have to decide if an ambitious plan to break apart the state into three will be worth it come this November. The proposal, which could result in the first time a U.S. state will be split since West Virginia was broken off in 1863, has gathered enough support to proceed to a state referendum.
To say that the plan is an ambitious one is putting it mildly. The proposal is to break apart California, which has been in its present form for 68 years, and split it into Northern California, Southern California, and a "New" California, as the Los Angeles Times laid out the issue at stake.
The proposal qualified for referendum this Tuesday, June 12, meaning that voters now get to decide on the Nov. 6 ballot if they want to break apart their state. If the proposal gets the majority of the vote, the long and arduous process of splitting California will start to make its way to federal levels.
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All these stemmed from an idea by the billionaire venture capitalist and investor Tim Draper, in what is now known as the "Cal 3" initiative. It was a proposal that Draper was willing to pour money into, as he set about canvassing signatures for the idea to send it to the polls, according to The Guardian.
"ThreeCAs will give Californians better education, better infrastructure and lower taxes," Draper said in November of last year, as his team kicked off the campaign to garner support for the proposal.
"Three new state governments will be able to start fresh, to innovate and better serve their people," he said, adding that the new states will be "more accountable to us and can cooperate and compete for citizens."
Under the proposal, which will make use of a provision in the U.S. Constitution for dividing up an existing state into new ones, Northern California will adopt 40 counties starting from Oregon south, Santa Cruz, Merced and Mariposa counties and then extending northwards. San Francisco and Sacramento will fall in this region.
South California will start at the Central Valley, in Madera County, along the east and southeast borders of the existing state, then following along the Pacific coast to include the San Diego and Orange counties. It will have 12 counties, San Diego, Bakersfield and Fresno covered.
The part that will retain the name "California" will be anchored by Los Angeles County, and will host six counties as it stretches up to Monterey.
Critics have called the proposal a financial drain and a distraction from other, more pressing issues. "This measure would cost taxpayers billions of dollars to pay for the massive transactional costs of breaking up the state, whether it be universities, parks or retirement systems," Steven Maviglio, a Democratic political strategist, pointed out.
"California government can do a better job addressing the real issues facing the state, but this measure is a massive distraction that will cause political chaos and greater inequality," he added.
