A billionaire venture capitalist came up with an idea to divide California up into 6 states.
Timothy Draper says that he’s gotten enough signatures to add the proposal to get it on the ballot in 2 years. (As of yesterday the campaign says it has collected 808,000 signatures.)
After reading a little into this, I wondered what the motive to divide the state was.
According to Roger Salazar, a spokesman for the campaign: “It’s important because it will help us create a more responsive, more innovative and more local government, and that ultimately will end up being better for all of Californians.”
I couldn’t imagine this actually happening and it sounds to me more like some sort of gimmick. From what I’ve read in the article, the plan has no chance of getting approved.
Here are the names of the states if this was to get approved:
- Silicon Valley
- Jefferson
- North California
- South California
- West California
- Central California
What do you think- great idea or a waste of time?
Find out more in the Yahoo News article here.
You can also learn more about the plan from the people behind Six Californias here.
Joey- LOL- I think Texas would have a shot at that faster than Cali!
AlohaDaveKennedy- Good one!
Trent- Possibly but I think the idea was this billionaires plan not the Republican Party!
omatravel- I can’t honestly believe that they think this idea could realistically pass. Makes for fun conversation though!
John F- Now that’s an interesting idea!
Waste of time! We need fewer states, not more. Save billions, if not trillions, in federal and state budgets by administering fewer separate entities. Do we really need 2 Dakotas, 2 Carolinas, 2 Virginias? With small populations, couldn’t we combine New Mexico with Colorado, Wyoming with Utah, Montana with Idaho?
Any state split would have to get through congress and that is not likely to happen so yes it’s a giant waste.
I understand the intent as the gridlock at the state capital far exceeds what we see in DC. Big things like the budget can’t get passed without much threats and challenges but things like plastic bag bans generally can.
Personally having been raised and spent 40 of my 42 years there, I think it’s a stupid idea even with the gridlock concerns.
It’s all about electoral votes and ensuring that they don’t go to the Democrats. The Republicans are screwed because of demography so they come up with tricks like these to stay relevant.
If anything, I think California can be its own country!
If California became its own country, I fear a great many states would begin deportation proceedings against those who have fled in search of a better life.
This is just another way to further concentrate wealth in the hands of a few. Silicon Valley would no longer need to subsidize the rest of California.
That could very well be the motive of the idea…