California is riddled with flaws.
There are 15,700 known faults beneath the landmass we call the state of California.
Of these, more than 500 are considered active faults.
There are often more than 100 earthquakes per day.
The California Earthquake Authority has reported that they are essentially so small that almost no one feels them. But once in a while, many of us will get a jolt.
There’s another fun little California fact gleaned from the ultimate source of all things California, the State Library.
California, which gained statehood in 1850, has seen at least 220 attempts to dismantle the state.
These 220 attempts are chronicled in the State Library’s collection with timelines, historical maps and documents, books and articles on the subject, and videos of more recent efforts.
Much like earthquakes, most are too small for you to feel the rumbles.
A few — like the Jefferson State movement — are more well-known and persistent, with bumper stickers and signs erected in various parts of Northern California.
There are occasional 5.0 events that almost head into the statewide ballot. The latest tremor was the so-called “California Six” initiative launched by venture capitalist Tom Draper in 2016.
It might surprise you to know that the rupture movement is alive but barely registering on the Richter scale of politics in our own backyard.
It’s called the “New California State” movement and it’s been around since 2017.
The movement’s leaders declared their “independence” on January 15, 2018 and plan their 10th Constitutional Congress for January 12-14, 2023.
Unlike the people of the Bar Flag Rebellion of June-July 1846, their quest for freedom did not take place in the homes of those who were disaffected, nor did they take over an outpost of the government and raised their flag.
Instead, they’re hosting a full-scale convention in Anaheim with online ticket sales. By the way, the preferred ticket package is $275. It’s clearly a small price to pay to save one from California as it is today.
The grievances are numerous and predictable. General frustrations center on education, crime, taxes and general governance.
They have committees in almost every county. One of the exceptions, of course, is San Francisco.
The website is quite elaborate and contains various governing documents that have been adopted. In a way, it’s a bit like the American Legion California Boys State & Girls State programs, but for adults and more stamina than just one week a year. Both are essentially a “fictitious” state government with no real power.
Unlike the high school juniors who attend this summer program, the goal is not to become California’s future leaders, but to create a new state of California.
Last month, a dozen movement members chronicled their efforts in public comments at the Modesto City Council meeting.
With that in mind, dividing up California could be a messy business.
A prime example is Draper’s 2016 proposed ax job that garnered over 1.3 signatures but failed to qualify for the ballot.
Draper faced 39 million people. California is ungovernable. He thought Silicon Valley – which would be the name of a new state that would include San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland among others – was being held back by what he saw as California’s ongoing political mess.
California, however, is the sum total of its vast differences and resources and that one end of the state could not thrive without the other. It would be like Ginger Rogers without Fred Astaire.
Draper asserted that every new state in California would prosper. Ideally, his home state of Silicon Valley would have had the highest per capita rate of any state in the union, while neighboring central California, which stretched from Stockton to Bakersfield and east to the Nevada state line, would have the lowest in the country.
The debt would be divided according to population. What if no agreement could be reached on the sharing of assets – the state water project, prisons, universities and colleges, etc. – each state would obtain the facilities of the State of California under its jurisdiction.
Jefferson State in the far north would control the State Water Project’s largest reservoir. Central California would control the California Aqueduct and much of the Delta. Water withdrawal from the Hetch Hetchy watershed by San Francisco and the Owens Valley watershed by Los Angeles would be subject to new regulations developed by the State of Central California.
As a state, Central California would have a very important seat at the table when it comes to the delta tunnel, given that most of the delta is within its boundaries. This could prove problematic for Los Angeles and the new state of Western California as well as the state of Silicon Valley since the tunnel project benefits both at the expense of the Delta.
The number of convicted felons housed in central California would drop dramatically unless, of course, other “new” states paid to store them here. Western California, for example, has 37% of California’s convicted felons and less than 7% of its prison bed space. As a bonus, Central California would have the $900 million State Prison Hospital. By choosing not to import prisoners from four of the other five new states (Jefferson State would not need to send any out of the state with 970,000 residents and owning the Pelican Bay and of Susanville), central California could respond to overcrowding federal court prisons and health care mandates. That means we could incarcerate more felons while the states of Silicon Valley and Western California would have to let even more convicted felons go free long before their sentences have been served.
All of this and more is possible with a break in California.
But let’s be honest. Draper’s idea, which was naively based on the hope of starting from scratch to create state governments that reflected the dynamics of six distinct California regions, should have been called “The Lawyer Lifetime Employment Act.”
There is no way anyone is taking a share of the per capita debt and then letting the assets go to new states based on their physical location.
As much as the people of Jefferson State like to complain, the state has a lot of highway and highway debt that they can’t begin to cover.
You would create six states with at least two, if not three, having a major reduction in education funding at the state level. Uncle Sam won’t like that.
Draper was not the first person to conclude that California is too big to govern, nor will he be the last.
But when all the emotion is put aside, California is the sum of its resources, its diversity and its challenges. Six won’t be as strong as one, warts and all.
Whether we live in Redding, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Manteca, Bakersfield, Delano, San Diego, Needles, Lone Pine or Silicon Valley, we are all Californians.
Our problems are intertwined with our successes.
This column is the opinion of the editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at [email protected]