Editor’s note: the views expressed in this OP-ED do not necessarily reflect those of the Long Beach Post, its staff, or its ownership. To submit a letter to the editor or an OP-ED, please email [email protected].

Is there a “Republic of West California” in our future?

As SFGate.com reports here, there certainly could be. As well as the States of: “Jefferson”, “North California”, “Silicon Valley”, “Central California”, and “South California”.

Splitting California into six different states appears to be the current aspiration of Tim Draper, a venture capitalist, who claims to have collected the over 800,000 petition signatures necessary to have this very question placed on the statewide November 2016 General Election ballot.

If this question does qualify for the ballot, and if a sufficient number of voters approve, California’s Constitution would be amended to reflect the creation of six separate states from one.

Long Beach would find itself, for example, as a city in the newly-created State of “West California,” which it would share with the current residents of Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo Counties.

Draper’s stated motivation is to try to circumvent the partisan politics in Sacramento by limiting the power of the state legislature currently housed there. Draper apparently feels most of the current crop of politicians in Sacramento lack both vision and innovation and that the only way to address this challenge is to deprive them of the privilege of continuing to exert political control over the entire State.

Like me, Draper is reportedly a registered independent. Also like me, he is a strong proponent of a statewide School Choice initiative, an effort which he apparently championed about 14 years ago but which regrettably failed. Despite that Draper personally invested $20 million of his own money in the School Choice ballot effort, he was apparently out-spent by the combined political action committee (PAC) funds of the national, state, and local teachers unions, which consistently, and aggressively, fight any statewide School Choice effort, anywhere in the nation, including California.

Draper’s idea to divide California has considerable merit. It is inarguable that the current State government in Sacramento is far from the model of cooperation and innovation it once was. With a Democrat Governor re-enlisted from the late 1970’s, and with a Democrat supermajority in both Houses of the State Legislature, there is all but no consideration for—let alone accommodation of—a more conservative approach to statewide governance in California. The political liberals in Sacramento quite literally have the run of the place and actually have enjoyed effective control of the Legislature for about 50 years. From time to time there have been various Republican Governors who have made sometimes greater, sometimes lesser efforts to provide some checks and balances in Sacramento, but for the most part California has been and remains one of the bluest of the nation’s blue states.

Draper believes that California has “the worst-managed government in the country”. While that is certainly a debatable matter of opinion, most standard indices would tend to support this belief. California is one of the highest-taxed and most heavily-regulated states in the nation. Because of this California typically loses large numbers of its population (including yours truly) to exit migration to other, less expensive and less regulated states. In other words, to more politically conservative states.

California has all but made itself a de-facto sanctuary state for illegal immigrants. Because of this, California is now estimated to house fully one fourth of the nation’s entire illegal immigrant population. California’s only saving grace is the monstrous productivity of its people and industries. A productivity if measured as an expression of GDP, would represent about the ninth largest economy in the world. Not long ago, however, it was the sixth largest. Despite its incredible productivity, California’s economy is slipping. Like Draper, I think that unless something changes, and drastically, California’s economy will continue slip in comparison to others and that its total public debt, currently at $422 billion, will only continue to deepen far beyond any hope of recovery. That debt currently eats up over 18% of California’s GDP and that percentage is likewise more likely to increase under the State government as currently composed.

Draper’s vision of six sub-divisions seems excessive to me, however I think California could (and should) certainly divide into 3-4 smaller states. Observe the East Coast for a moment. Roughly the same land mass California occupies to the west, 6-7 states occupy to the East. For the past five decades Sacramento has proven woefully inadequate to the task of effectively governing California’s single monstrous economy and population.

Perhaps several smaller states could be run better.