A new revolutionary proposal to divide California into three states will appear on an election ballot in November. It is thanks to venture capitalist Tim Draper, who obtained enough signatures to make that historical move happen.
It would be the first division of an existing U.S. state since the creation of West Virginia in 1863. The Golden State has been operating as such for 168 years. The new plan would split California into three separate jurisdictions.
One of the states would be "primarily centered around Los Angeles and the other two divvying up the counties to the north and south," The LA Times reports. It would also divide the population of the current California state into thirds.
Tim Draper said in an email to The Times last year that three states would result in better infrastructure, better education and lower taxes. "States will be more accountable to us and can cooperate and compete for citizens," Draper told The Times.
The opponents of this radical proposal claim that as individual states, some of the more rural regions would suffer from higher rates of poverty, whereas "coastal communities would flourish in new, smaller states where the lion’s share of California tax revenue is generated."
