Citing disproportionate allocation of sources and “unfunded mandates,” a San Bernardino County developer proposed this week that the Board of Supervisors discover seceding from California to kind a brand new state that will be known as “Empire.”
“Our Sheriff’s Department, our judges, are constantly taxed with too much with not enough resources,” Jeff Burum, chairman of growth agency National Community Renaissance, mentioned Tuesday on the Board of Supervisors assembly.
“The state of California continues to allocate resources to the high-cost areas to our detriment and other inland valley communities,” he mentioned. “It’s time to stop it.”
Burum proposed placing the problem on the November poll.
“If we put on an advisory vote for just San Bernardino County residents, a simple yes or no vote: Do they support [the board] looking into … seceding from the state of California, I promise you, you will get an affirmative vote,” he mentioned.
Joining Burum in favor of the proposal had been the mayors of Upland and Fontana, who echoed his considerations relating to the necessity for sources for public works and different capabilities.
“We cannot continue to beg and crawl and squirrel count … to get resources for our county,” mentioned Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren. “We have millions of citizens that have needs, and the county is our lifeline, and that lifeline continues to be choked.”
“Now we’re hearing that we’re going to have to have all electric cars by 2035,” mentioned Upland Mayor Bill Velto. “I’m curious where they’re going to get the money for the roadways when the gas tax starts dropping.”
California plans to halt the sale of new combustion-engine autos by 2035, requiring new automobiles bought to be zero-emission however not banning gasoline-powered engines solely, with a view to reduce down on dangerous emissions which might be fueling the local weather disaster.
“How they expect cities like Upland and many other cities in our county to achieve those mandates when we don’t have the funds is just incredible,” Velto mentioned.
At the shut of the assembly, board Chairman Curt Hagman expressed his assist for exploring the secession idea additional.
Hagman mentioned he was not solely displeased with the monetary points but in addition “fed up with the way they treat our public safety.”
“I support the cause,” he mentioned. “It’s about losing the ability to govern on a local level, which this country was based on. It was based on states’ rights, based on local control.”
The board couldn’t take motion on the proposal Tuesday, however the subject could possibly be mentioned if it had been to seem on a later agenda.
Both Hagman and Warren acknowledged the unlikelihood that the proposal would succeed.
“I know people will say, ‘Y’all went crazy,’” Warren mentioned. “Yes, we have. We have went crazy to serve others.”
“It’s one in a million that we will be successful at this point,” Hagman mentioned, including that he hoped exploring such a transfer would no less than ship a message to the state.
County Counsel Tom Bunton illustrated the chances stacked towards profitable secession: A brand new state has not been fashioned by separating from one other since West Virginia did so in 1863. No new state has joined the union since Alaska in 1959.
The proposal is the most recent chapter in an extended historical past of parts of California trying to secede, citing political and monetary divides.
In 2013, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted to discover seceding from California to kind the brand new state of Jefferson. As of 2022, Siskiyou County stays half of the state.