California to vote on split proposal

For the first time since the US Civil War, voters in California will decide on a proposal to divide their state.

And though a measure to split the most populous US state into three separate states qualified on June 12 to be on the ballot in November’s election, few give it a chance of being approved.

An April SurveyUSA poll found that 72 percent of Californians would vote against it, and just 17 percent would vote “yes”.

“It all seems a bit unrealistic,” said Shaun Bowler, a political-science professor at University of California Riverside, in an email.

“It is just not clear what problem would go away if we were in three states. We still need to figure out how to fund schools, roads and police, and how to find water and housing, etc,” he said.

But even if approved, the measure would then face legal hurdles as well as need approval from the state legislature and then Congress.

The referendum is the third attempt to divide the Golden State by billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper, 60. He tried in 2012 and 2014 but didn’t get the required number of signatures to put it on the ballot.

Draper spent almost $4.9 million of his own money on the unsuccessful signature drive in 2014, according to the Los Angeles Times, which said that state records through last December report only about $559,000 being spent.

In those two previous attempts, Draper wanted the state divided into six parts. The latest effort — called “Cal-3” — would divide the state into Northern California, Southern California and California, with one (California) centered around Los Angeles and the other two divvying up the counties to the north and south. It would roughly divide the population of the existing state into thirds.

“Three Californias will give Californians better education, better infrastructure and lower taxes,” Draper said when he launched the campaign in November. “Three new state governments will be able to start fresh, to innovate and better serve their people,” he said.

But Bowler said there would be many problems if the proposal passes, ranging from maintaining freeways and establishing sales taxes to how a water system would be handled.

Much of California’s rain and snow falls in the north, while much of the demand for water is in the south. The proposed state of California, including Los Angeles, would be a net importer of water from the other two proposed states.

Steven Maviglio, a political strategist representing opponents of the effort, projected the transactional costs at billions of dollars, and called the measure a “massive distraction” that will cause “political chaos and greater inequality”.