캘리포니아 '6개 작은주' 분할안 Billionaire in push to carve up California into six states
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청원에 130만명 서명해 투표요건 획득 실현 가능성은 낮아
미국에서 인구가 가장 많은 캘리포니아주를 6개의 작은 주로 분할하자는 안이 오는 2016년 말 투표에 부쳐질 전망이다.
캘리포니아 분할안을 주장하는 민간단체 '6 캘리포니아'는 130만 명의 주민 서명을 모아 분할에 대한 주민투표 요건을 충족했다고 15일(현지시간) 밝혔다. 주민투표에 필요한 최소 서명 인원은 80만8천명이다.
이 단체는 지난 2월부터 서명을 모았으며 일부를 이날 주도 새크라멘토가 속한 새크라멘토 카운티에 제출했다.
이 서명들의 진위가 확인될 경우 캘리포니아주 분할 주민투표는 2016년 11월 미국 대통령 선거와 함께 치러지게 된다고 AP통신은 전했다.
이 단체가 캘리포니아 분할을 주장하는 것은 캘리포니아 인구가 3천830만 명까지 이르면서 주 정부가 각 지역의 행정수요를 감당하지 못하고 있다는 판단에서다.
▲ 실리콘 밸리 ▲ 웨스트 캘리포니아 ▲ 사우스 캘리포니아 ▲센트럴 캘리포니아 ▲ 노스 캘리포니아 ▲ 제퍼슨 등이다.
(서울=연합뉴스) 방현덕 기자 |
Divided they stand?
Billionaire in push to carve up California into six states
A billionaire tech investor says he has enough backing to put on the ballot a plan to split California into six states.
Timothy Draper, a venture capitalist founder of a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that has invested in such tech companies as Twitter, HotMail, Skype and Tesla, told Reuters he has the 808,000 signatures needed on a petition to force the measure onto a public referendum in November 2016. Under the far-fetched plan, one state would be called "Silicon Valley" and would include the tech mecca, as well as San Francisco.
"California needs a reboot," Draper, who has spent $4.9 million of his own money on the effort, said in a press release. "Six Californias is our opportunity to solve the many problems we face today. ... Six states that are more representative and accountable. Six states that embrace innovation and strive to improve the lives of residents."
"California needs a reboot."
- Timothy Draper, billionaire behind "Six Californias"
Draper's group plans to submit the signatures today, according to a Tweet.
A state dubbed "Jefferson" would include the northernmost portion; "South California" would be comprised of San Diego and eastern Los Angeles while the rest of L.A. would be called "West California." A province called "North California" would be built around Sacramento, and "Central California" would be made up of the central valley farm region, including Tulare and Fresno counties.
Silicon Valley would become the nation's richest state, while Central California would become its poorest, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office.
Critics call the plan kooky and note that such ideas have been floated in the past and never gone anywhere. According to FOX40, there have been about 220 efforts to divide California. All have failed.
"This is a colossal and divisive waste of time, energy and money that will hurt the California brand,” said Steven Maviglio, a Democratic political strategist who formed the group OneCalifornia to fight Draper’s plan. "It has zero chance of passage. But what it does is scare investment away... at a time when the governor is leading us to an economic comeback.”
Draper and other supporters plan to file the signatures with California Secretary of State Debra Bowen on Tuesday.
"It’s important because it will help us create a more responsive, more innovative and more local government, and that ultimately will end up being better for all of Californians," said Roger Salazar, a spokesman for the campaign. "The idea ... is to create six states with responsive local governments -- states that are more representative and accountable to their constituents."
Draper's group says the division would create a more business-friendly environment, solve the state’s water issues and ease traffic congestion.
Earlier this year, Bowen gave the go-ahead for activists to start gathering signatures for the initiative. Their deadline for submitting them was July 18.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle facing Draper's six-state scheme is that even if approved, it would be subject to passage by Congress.
"He's got a pretty high bar to pass," Corey Cook, director of the University of San Francisco's Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good, told the San Jose Mercury News. "There'll be a general skepticism of how dividing the state would improve it."
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