The signatures are still being gathered, and it looks like the Initiative to break up California into six separate states will be heading for the ballot.
Venture capitalist Tim Draper says he is getting “close†to collecting the necessary 800,000 signatures needed to get his “Six Californias†measure before state voters in 2014 — but he acknowledges his own internal polling shows Silicon Valley is most opposed to the idea of splitting the state into six parts.
“You’d think that Silicon Valley would benefit†greatest from the plan, said Draper, whose plan calls for the foundation of a state of Silicon Valley, which economists suggest would likely be the richest state in the nation. But “Silicon Valley is the least likely to vote for this,†Draper acknowledged Tuesday. “It’s bizarre.â€
So is the idea. Many attempts have been made to split Washington into two states, usually along the Cascade range. Slightly fewer have attempted to split Oregon. There have even been a couple that attempted to split both the states and combine both west halves and both east halves and make two states out of them.
This will be fun to watch. People may even get a little bit of a Civics lesson out of it, if nothing else.
Silicon Valley doesn’t want to dilute its power – Obamacare is what. There’s no benefit accrued when all the illegals working in Atherton, Menlo Park, Hillsborough, Palo Alto, etc. all get FREE healthcare (well they do anyhow, at Stanford Emergency Room – and more) – while the tax-base is reduced and limited to the Peninsula instead of spread around among all the areas.