Zenaida Groves
Dr. Hankinson
English-120
24, July 2018
Should California be Split into Three States?
A Silicon Valley billionaire named Tim Draper wants to split California into three separate states. Meaning, residents of California would possibly have “California, Southern California, and Northern California all as a new state.”; Hence, splitting California to three separate states. Our state has had multiple offers in the past, to turn California into smaller states.; However, this would not be the first time most of us have heard about this. Some of these state proposals from the past are called (according to Walton), The Pico Act, Dolwig Proposal, Statham Proposal, Stone Proposal, State of Jefferson, Six States Proposal, as well as, Cal three plan.” My goal with writing this paper is to discuss to the reader that this plan is to separate California into three. Which then, I later will explain that this would be a huge mistake due to the problems that can occur while this transition is taking place.
Tim Draper, Silicon Valley billionaire has previously spent back in the year 2014, $5.2 million dollars to split California up into six different regions. Which later, failed to be present on the voting ballot. Tim Draper also believes that California is unsafe, we have to deal with the same government from many years ago, there is many homeless people, there are a lot of big problems, education system is the worst in all the states. Which he then said it should lead to a new start and revamp which Tim Draper believes is a good start. His goal is to make it better for the next millennial to come. For his Cal three plan (according to Fox News), he has had six hundred thousand signatures from all fifty-eight counties. (Louie). The last time a state was split up was Virginia from West Virginia. When this happened Virginia then became part of the confederacy and not the Union. (Lucas) Which means that congress would have to ratify the change for California to be split up into three. Tim draper thinks that Southern California, Northern California and California already have different political leanings. In my own opinion, I believe this is a way to divide us and not try and unite us to one another. Then all these states would have to choose their own constitution. Tim Draper believes that California is impossible to control.
As of July 18, 2018, it was said that the supreme court had removed the act Cal three proposition nine act from the ballot. When Tim Draper found out he tweeted, “The California Supreme Court took Cal three off the ballot!! WTF?” which then he stated, “the establishment does not want to find out how many people disagree and dislike the way California is being governed at the moment.” (Draper). Which in my opinion, I feel as if, there is absolutely no need to spit California up into three separate states. California is known for Southern and Northern California. It should not be named or split up into three. It is fine where it is at and should remain that way for years to come.
Mentioned previously, Tim Draper said, “California has one of the most awful school systems and the most ridiculous taxes”. Well, just about every state has poor school systems. Which, I believe other countries such as Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, United Kingdom etc. Are better than our school systems, why? Well they are knowledgeable in many different languages. Are also highly ranked in classes then those living here in the United States. Also, the United States high schoolers are way behind other countries at least three or two years behind secondary schoolers from other countries. This makes you think if they split California up into three, how is it going to change school systems? If this split ever occurs in the future I do not believe it will improve our school systems. I believe, if they set up a foundation for people to donate money, they can make the school systems better. This billionaire is so concerned with how poor our education is here in California perhaps he could have donated the 5.2 million to schools instead of using it to try to split up California. They do not have to split California up into three just for that reason. Technically stating, that is not a good enough reason to split California up. One of the greatest things about the United States is that we have much more freedom. We also have the option to get a general equivalency diploma (GED) if for some reason a student is not able to graduate to get their graduating diploma.
According to Steven Maviglio at Ballot Pedia, stated that “This just shows us that a billionaire with a wacky idea can get anything on the ballot. Which does not solve a single thing in our state or even add a single job.” (Maviglio). Another person from the democratic side said, “there has been an effort to split up California, and it clearly shows that the voters have said many times that they are not interested in doing so by the results.” Which is very true, many interviews of random people found on the street have told the news reporters that they do not need to split California, they feel as if California is fine the way it is. Which is true, our state is fine the way it is as of now. Many people believe that the process of managing our state is highly unmanageable and that our state is just too big. Which I agree with, our state being highly uncontrollable. The reason I think of it as being unmanageable is due to the quality of life those are living along with high taxes. Which then leads to many people pro Cal Three that this gives us the opportunity to convince others that they want something different and much better than how it is now.
Now, if we go a little bit more in-depth about what counites would be covered by the three new California states it would starting off with Northern California according to (Meyers) from La Times, we would have forty counties and it would first start from Oregon, Santa Cruz, Merced then to Mariposa.” The next would be Southern California which would consist of: Madera county, then reach to eastern and southern spine which then would be made up of twelve counties. Then lead to the pacific Coast then San Diego to Orange County. Last, Los Angeles would retain the six counties that will have the name California. If this is passed this would all eventually lead to a better frame work and lower taxes. Which will better lead the people of those particular states. (According to Zerkel). Zerkel also states that he got told by (Maviglio), “Once splitting California into three new governments will do absolutely nothing to solve California state challenges.” Which most people believe already.
Another big problem would be water. How? Well by trying to figure out how to distribute water across the state lines. Most of the water today comes from Northern California and is passed down through aqueducts, dams, levees as well as channels. According to (Zerkel at weather channel). You would have to come up with a scenario thinking about what could possibly happen if this act did take place. Imagine if there is a big drought like in the year of 2011-2017? When cities including Los Angeles, receive water from thousands of miles away. Which Tim Draper later stated that “New state leaders will then have to consider how to divide California water amongst the three new states.” (according to weather site).
According to (Scribner) at Deseret news Northern California, California, and Southern California would have same amount of equal population. It is said that Northern California would have 13.3million residents, 13.9 million residents in Southern California, and 12.3 million residents in California/ Los Angeles. With Northern California being the second richest state according to SF Chronicle (Wildermuth). Which I believe is the only reason why this billionaire wants California to be split up in to three separate state. Which later Tim Draper stated, “If Northern California becomes the first, that is not a bad thing.” (according to SanFrancisco chronicle). Which in the back of his mind he wants to maybe find a way for only Northern California residents to only be the rich and not a mixture of incomes.
As of July 18th, it has been said that Cal three has been removed off of the voting ballot. (according to Park at CNN). The supreme court of California did not accept of this. Which is such a good thing! Why split up our state? His reasons do not make sense. I am thinking if this has to do with population, why not just split up Texas into three new states or another state that is bigger? Perhaps, even Alaska. They can break these states up into even more states. They do not have to try and make California split up. As I said, this is making everyone separated and will not untie us in any way. Quite a bit of people think that it is going to be hard due to it being a democrat state. As far as I am concerned, it only seems as if they want more senators and honestly California is more of a free state as it is now. The only good side to the cal three states even occurring would be that it would add more power to the democratic USA senate party.
According to cal3, if it ever makes it on the ballot and passes everyone’s taxes would somehow be lowered. Due to the taxes being managed badly which then Cal three would come in and inspire each other state to set lower tax rates. Cal three would also offer a self-government type of community. This also will result in smaller counties that will finally be able to speak out without competing with much larger counties. I was thinking about how nothing in our state or eventually multiple states would get any better. It is just sad. I believe that Draper could have donated the millions of dollars that he made to an organization to make our state better. Perhaps donating to elementary or those in secondary school. Instead, we see Tim Draper wanting to divide us and not keep us united. Many articles have stated that this is the government’s goal to divide each one of us. As far as infrastructure is concerned, as Tim Draper stated according to Los Angeles Times said by (Meyers). That is another reason he thinks that our state should be made into three new states. Infrastructure really, I am happy that this bill was not passed. California is fine the way it is. If schools, infrastructure, etc.is what Mr. Drapers is truly concerned about then again, perhaps he should target some of his money toward those concerns and not focus so much on pressing the issue of splitting states.