Billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper proposed to break up California into six different states so that the region could be governed more effectively, the Financial Times reported. The son and grandson of startup investors, who has a reputation for going after his personal causes, introduced a campaign this week to have his proposal introduced to voters so that they could vote on it by next November. For Draper, the competition among the "mini-Californias" will result to more efficient forms of government.
However, the report said that the state's partiality towards making law through voter initiatives such as this one, together with its requirement to have a two-thirds majority pass a budget as well as the gerrymandering or the practice of manipulating the boundaries of electoral districts to make it favorable to one party or class has caused the state to struggle with a series of fiscal crises in the past few years.
Critics said that California, with a $2.1 trillion economy that is larger than the gross domestic product of Italy, has made it unsuited to respond to local concerns. Citing the state's most eminent historian Kevin Starr, the report said that since 1850, there have been over 200 proposals to divide California. He said that the need for local representation that is more effective will be even become more important as the state's population continues to grow from 37 million now to 50 million by 2040. However, he added that calls for a split will not likely occur. He told the FT, "It won't happen for the next 500 years or so, conservatively."
Draper, whose venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson invested in such companies as Baidu, Skype and Tesla Motors, intends to have three of the new states focused in the San Francisco Bay area, Los Angeles and Orange County. The less populous and poorer states in the agricultural areas will be centered in the Central Valley and in the northern areas, the report said.
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