Who Did You Say Is Going To Split California in Half? %page

Who Did You Say Is Going To Split California in Half?

Posted by Sophie Egge on July 12, 2011 Leave a comment (0) Go to comments

Once again money rears its ugly head Why do I have trouble believing what I read? Elected officials in Riverside County endorsed a proposal Tuesday to discuss cleaving California in two, but with a catch: No public funds can be spent on the budding secessionist movement. Jeff Stone, the Riverside County supervisor who dreamed up the idea for what he’s calling South California, said proponents will turn to private donors to sponsor work toward the scheme. “After the meeting, we were flooded with people wanting to volunteer and help,” Stone’s chief of staff Verne Lauritzen said.

Long shot proposal “It’s not clear how this would work out in practice,” said University of California, Riverside political science professor Shaun Bowler. Stone’s largely agricultural district of desert plains and boulder-studded hills saw rapid population growth during the last decade’s housing boom, and he wants 13 mostly conservative California counties to break away to create a 51st state. Stone says California is too big to govern.

The split Stone’s version of South California would encompass coastal Orange and San Diego counties, and more sparsely populated, inland areas such as Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Mono, Riverside, San Bernardino and Tulare counties. It would have a part-time Legislature and no term limits. But even if those counties do decide to join under Stone’s South California banner, they would face numerous hurdles, such as the U.S. Constitution’s requirement that says no new state be formed without the consent of Congress and the state Legislature.

Los Angeles Residents of the new state would likely find themselves worse off because they’d be cut off from tax revenue collected in some densely populated coastal cities, including Los Angeles, where most of California’s business occurs. “If you leave out Los Angeles, it means somebody else is going to have to pay for the water projects, the freeways, the universities,” he said. “Somebody has to pay for the infrastructure.” The new Californian state would also depend on a water conveyance system that is fed by reservoirs and melting snowcaps beyond its borders, Bowler noted.

Cross-border South California students could have to pay out-of-state tuition for UC’s most prestigious campuses in Berkeley and Los Angeles. Californians in the remaining counties might want to put toll booths beside their freeways on the new state line so they’re not stuck maintaining a road system that South Californians headed to coastal job centers get to use for free. “The infrastructure is built around the idea that California is one state,” he said. “Once you unplug it, you’re dealing with cross-border issues.”

Uphill battle Lauritzen acknowledged that it would be an uphill battle to actually secede and did not yet know how proponents would get enough state and federal lawmakers to support the plan, how state resources would be divided up or how the new state would balance its books without some of its biggest tax bases. Those issues would be addressed once counties come together to discuss their interest in forming the separate state, he said. “Do I have the exact answer about what will happen? No,” he said. “I don’t think anyone does.”

Oil Which half has the oil North California or South California?