2018 California Proposition 9

Cal 3 was a proposal to split the U.S. state of California into three states. It was launched in August 2017 by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper, who led the effort to have it originally qualify on the November 2018 state ballot as Proposition 9, officially the Division of California into Three States initiative. Proponents of the proposal argued that dividing California into three states would provide fairer and more responsive governance for large regions outside of California’s major cities. In July 2018, the Supreme Court of California pulled it from the ballot for further state constitutional review. Draper officially stopped pushing for the measure soon after. On 12 September 2018, the court permanently removed the measure from all future ballots.

The Cal 3 proposal would not have legally split the state immediately; the division would have occurred only if and when the U.S. Congress consented to admit the new states to the Union per Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Rather, the measure would have established procedures within the state government for the proposed split.

There were key procedural differences between the Cal 3 initiative and Draper's previous Six Californias plan, which failed to get enough signatures to qualify for the 2014 ballot. Among the differences, Cal 3 was an initiative to change a California statute, which required fewer petition signatures to qualify for the ballot than a proposed state constitutional amendment like the Six Californias plan. Also, language in the Cal 3 initiative was written so that if it was approved by the voters, the legislative consent required by Section 3 of Article IV "is given by the people" instead of directly by the California State Legislature.

As with his previous Six Californias plan, Draper and other proponents of Cal 3 said that the state is too large and ungovernable, and splitting California would produce smaller and more efficient state governments. Similarly to the previous plan, opponents said that such a split would be an unnecessary use of money and resources.

Background

California history

California has been the subject of more than 220 proposals to divide it into multiple states since its admission to the union in 1850, including at least 27 significant proposals in the first 150 years of statehood.

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper launched Six Californias, a proposed initiative to split California into six states, in December 2013. It failed to obtain sufficient signatures to qualify as a California ballot measure for the 2016 state elections. He spent more than $5 million to try to qualify the proposition for the ballot, including nearly $450,000 for political consultants.

Federal precedents

Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution outlines the procedure for the admission of new U.S. states. It reads:

There are several precedents for the creation of new states out of pre-existing ones. Note that the pre-existing state does not disappear but simply gets smaller when the new state is admitted. The original state is not renamed or re-admitted, since it never leaves the union. Congress addresses only the question of admitting the ''new'' state.

* The Commonwealth of Kentucky was admitted in 1792. It was created from the western territory of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Virginia legislature had already approved release of the land when the old constitution was still in effect (1781-1789). But as the Congress had not acted before the new constitution was enacted, it passed the bill of consent again as a matter of course.
* North Carolina ceded its western territory to the United States, as the Southwest Territory. The Congress subsequently created it the State of Tennessee in 1796.
* The State of Georgia likewise ceded the western two-thirds of its post-1783 territory, part of which was disputed with the Spanish Colony of Florida until 1795. That territory was subsequently split in half, with the western portion created the State of Mississippi in 1817 and the eastern portion created the State of Alabama in 1819. Both states and the State of Louisiana (1812) were expanded when the United States acquired Florida from Spain in 1821, and divided the western half of the Florida Panhandle between the three.

One instance was related to slavery:

* In the 1820 Missouri Compromise, abolitionist-leaning states allowed Missouri to be admitted as a slave state subsequent to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' agreement to release its northeastern territory (accounting for more than 75% of the Commonwealth's land area) for the admission of Maine as a free state. This kept the number of free states and slave states in balance. In fact, the independence of Maine from Massachusetts had been first considered three decades earlier for completely different reasons but the impending admission of Missouri as a slave state provided political momentum to achieve it.

One instance was a direct result of the Civil War:

* When Virginia seceded from the United States in 1861, the people in the northwestern counties of the state refused to support the decision. They formed a provisional Restored Government of Virginia and were admitted to the union as the State of West Virginia in 1863. They were admitted as a slave state and were exempted from the Emancipation Proclamation, on the understanding they would use the time thus allowed to prepare for the eventual abolition of slavery nationwide, which happened with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865.

The admission of Vermont is often mistakenly presumed to be the result of a partition of New York, but that is not the actual history. At the time the American War for Independence began, most of the northern half of what is now Vermont was part of the British Province of Quebec. The southern half and west bank of the Connecticut River Valley had been disputed between New Hampshire and New York for several decades. When New Hampshire surrendered its claim in 1782, New York refused to recognise the grants of land made by New Hampshire decades earlier, which had been the bases for establishing 131 towns and New York's action infuriated Vermonters. The Privy Council in London ruled in favour of the Vermonters but the damage had already been done, so that six months after the Province of New York seceded from the British Empire, the Commonwealth of Vermont seceded from New York, in January 1777. The first Vermont Constitution was adopted in July 1777, and Vermont remained a fully independent nation for 14 years. Negotiations to join the United States were thwarted by perennial objection from New York, which continued to claim Vermont. New York finally surrendered its claim, paving the way for Vermont to ratify the U.S. Constitution on 10 January 1791, and be admitted as the 14th state on 4 March 1791.

A similar dispute arose between the State of Ohio and the Territory of Michigan in 1835-36, over which of them had rights to the Maumee Strip, including newly-created Toledo. Ohio's claim was proper, so her consent was necessary for Michigan to become a state if it wanted to have Toledo. A compromise was reached under which Michigan was given the Upper Peninsula instead; and Michigan became a state in January 1837.

Ballot qualification process

Draper introduced Cal 3 in August 2017. On October 24, 2017, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla gave approval for Draper to begin collecting petition signatures; under California state law, to qualify for the ballot, valid signatures of at least 365,880 registered California voters (five percent of the total votes cast for the Governor of California in the November 2014 general election) were required to be submitted by April 23, 2018. Because Cal 3 is an initiative to change a California statute instead of a state constitutional amendment, it requires fewer petition signatures to qualify for the ballot than the 807,615 that the Six Californias plan needed.

On April 12, 2018, eleven days before the deadline, Draper announced that he had collected over 600,000 signatures. On June 13, it was announced that there were sufficient valid signatures.

Measure details

The Cal 3 measure would add a new article to the California Codes. It outlines three proposed new states, and then calls for the California State Legislature to divide and transform the existing state into the three states. The proposal would then need the approval of voters in California, and then of the Congress of the United States (per Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution).

Proposed states

The Cal 3 plan would divide the state's 58 counties among three states, tentatively named California (nicknamed Cal), Northern California (nicknamed NorCal), and Southern California (nicknamed SoCal). In drawing these new boundaries, Draper aimed to have it so that the three proposed states have nearly equal populations. The following is an envisioned distribution of California's 58 counties into the proposed 3 Californias.

Counties in proposed state of California

* Los Angeles
* Monterey
* San Benito
* San Luis Obispo
* Santa Barbara
* Ventura

Counties in proposed state of Northern California

* Alameda
* Alpine
* Amador
* Butte
* Calaveras
* Colusa
* Contra Costa
* Del Norte
* El Dorado
* Glenn
* Humboldt
* Lake
* Lassen
* Marin
* Mariposa
* Mendocino
* Merced
* Modoc
* Napa
* Nevada
* Placer
* Plumas
* Sacramento
* San Francisco
* San Joaquin
* San Mateo
* Santa Clara
* Santa Cruz
* Shasta
* Sierra
* Siskiyou
* Solano
* Sonoma
* Stanislaus
* Sutter
* Tehama
* Trinity
* Tuolumne
* Yolo
* Yuba

Counties in proposed state of Southern California

* Fresno
* Imperial
* Inyo
* Kern
* Kings
* Madera
* Mono
* Orange
* Riverside
* San Bernardino
* San Diego
* Tulare

State-splitting process

If passed by voters, the measure then directs the Governor of California on January 1, 2019 to formally submit the state-splitting request to the U.S. Congress along with the certified elections results, and ask them to grant approval within twelve months. Language in the measure states that for the purposes of Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, the legislative consent for splitting the state "is given by the people".

The measure also directs the California State Legislature to divide California's assets and liabilities among the three new states. If the legislature is unable to pass such a plan within 12 months of the U.S. Congress' approval to split California, the assets and liabilities would then be distributed among the three new states based on their populations.

Analysis

Fiscal and policy implications

Because various parts of the state have deep economic ties with the other areas, splitting California would be a very complicated economic and public policy process. Water rights, transportation and infrastructure projects, California's public postsecondary education system, and other public programs are fully integrated throughout the state.

The income levels, and therefore the personal tax bases, in the proposed states differ. Based on 2015 values, the proposed (new) California state would rank about 12th among the states in per capita personal income, the new Northern California would be 2nd, and the new Southern California would be 30th. Because the new Southern California would be below the average of the rest of the country, it might struggle financially in its initial years. The new Northern California would have the higher per capita, while the (new) California would have the largest income disparity.

The income and wealth differences among the three states would result in different future policies in taxes and public spending. Each