[캘리포니아 6개주로 쪼개자?!] There’s a plan to split California into 6 states. Here’s what it might look like.

By Philip Bump, July 15, 2014, The Washington Post

Proponents of a ballot initiative aimed at splitting California into six states (or, more simply, one proponent: venture capitalist Tim Draper) may have collected enough signatures to put the initiative on the ballot. This is the beauty and the annoyance of California's initiative and referenda system. If you have enough cash, getting something on the ballot is relatively trivial, meaning that relatively trivial ideas -- like splitting California into six different states -- can be put up for a vote. (Happily, in this instance the federal government would have to sign off on the idea, which it will never do, because, come on.)

Draper's proposal is that California become six different states, each with its own capital and senators and so on. That's really one of the main selling points: Why should the millions of people in California have the same number of senators as the hundreds of thousands of people in Wyoming? And the answer is: Because you get to live by the coast and the redwoods and the beautiful people of Los Angeles and that is the price you pay. Everyone knows that.

Anyway, here are the six proposed states. They're based on existing counties, which makes the breakdown easier. The capitals aren't identified in the proposal, so we just guessed.

"Jefferson" is a cool name for a state. "West California" is a dumb name for a state. But the dumbest name is "Central California." It makes sense to refer to California's Central Valley as "the Central Valley," because it is central to California. It does not make sense to refer to a state as Central California because the California it is central to no longer exists. Why not, at the very least, East California, just to round out the compass?

The answer to that question of course is that Draper doesn't care, because this entire plan is really about creating Silicon Valley as its own state. Therefore Silicon Valley gets to be a state called "Silicon Valley," and it gets to make its politics and its money more dense, and everyone in the idyllic dream of Silicon Valley gets to be happy. And have two senators.

This is what that consolidation looks like.

Political distribution

Here's the breakdown of party registration in the "states" as independent countries.

"Silicon Valley" is the most robustly Democratic. Notice what happens, though. Three states would handily elect two Democratic senators. The other three are much more balanced, meaning that they'd likely pick up one or two Democrats on the Senate side.

And then there's the House.

This is how California's 53 existing House districts overlap with the new states. Things would get shuffled around, and wouldn't change much (since the focus is population). But the short version of the story is that Silicon Valley and "West California" (why not just call it San Andreas or something, for God's sake) would not have to be beholden to the more rural areas.  At all.

Tax disbursement

In 2010, State Sen. Noreen Evans received a breakdown of tax revenue and tax spending by county in the state, which her office provided to us. As one might expect, the amount various counties paid in tax in 2010 didn't often equal the benefits received from the state. And, as you might also expect, the counties that had the lowest ratio of benefits received to taxes paid tend to be the ones that are joined together under Draper's plan. (Below, "ratio" refers to the number of dollars received in benefits for each dollar paid in taxes.)

Less money going from Silicon Valley to the Central Valley, once they are two separate states. Whether or not this is intentional is left as an exercise to the reader, and the reader, being smart, attractive and generally savvy, will realize that the answer is yes.

Wealth

As it is now, "Silicon Valley" would be the richest state of the new six, by far.

Demographics

If you're curious, the racial make-up of the states wouldn't change that much.

So there you have it. The six new Californias that will never exist would look like this if they ever came into existence which, for the second time in this sentence alone, they will not. Silicon Valley will just have to be content with its two senators and shipping tax money off to the poorer people of the Central Valley and having one of the highest standards of living in the country. We can get through this together.

Correction: This post originally said the initiative would be on the ballot in 2014. Since the deadline for that to happen has passed, it would likely be on the ballot in November of 2016.

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[월드이슈] "캘리포니아 6개주로 쪼개자".. 美 분할론 시끌

국민일보 | 손병호 기자 | 입력 2014.07.17 02:23

미국 서부 캘리포니아주는 미국인들이 자국 내에서 가장 살고 싶어하는 곳이다. 그런 선망의 대상이던 이 주가 요즘 '6개주 분할론' 때문에 시끌벅적하다.

현지 비영리시민단체 '6개의 캘리포니아'는 15일(현지시간) 트위터를 통해 11월 중간선거 때 캘리포니아주를 6개의 새로운 주로 분할하는 안에 대한 국민투표를 실시하자는 청원을 제출하겠다고 밝혔다. 워싱턴포스트(WP)는 청원에 필요한 80만명 이상의 서명이 이미 확보됐으며 조만간 주정부에 제출될 것이라고 보도했다.

이들이 주를 분할하겠다고 나선 표면적 이유는 제대로 된 민의를 대변하기 위해서다. 캘리포니아는 인구가 3830만명이지만, 58만명의 와이오밍주와 마찬가지로 상원의원 숫자는 2명에 불과하다. 같은 캘리포니아 안에서도 지역적 특색이 전부 다른데 2명만으로 주민의 뜻을 반영하는 데 한계가 있다는 논리다. 아울러 덩치가 너무 커 주행정이 제대로 미치지 못하는 부분도 많다고 지적한다. 분할안은 길쭉한 캘리포니아를 위에서부터 아래로 차례대로 제퍼슨주, 북캘리포니아주, 중부캘리포니아주, 실리콘밸리주, 서캘리포니아주, 남캘리포니아주로 나누는 것이다.

하지만 외신들은 부자 도시는 더욱 더 풍요로운 곳으로, 가난한 도시는 더욱 쇠락의 길로 빠뜨리는 안이라고 꼬집었다. 가령 실리콘밸리주는 1인당 평균 연봉이 6만8365달러(7500만원)가 되지만 제퍼슨주나 중부캘리포니아주는 각각 3만7277달러(3840만원), 3만9852달러(4110만원)에 그치게 된다. 그만큼 실리콘밸리 주정부는 풍족한 예산을 자신들만을 위해 쓸 수 있는 반면 나머지 주는 힘겹게 살림을 꾸려나가야 한다. 결국 실리콘밸리주에 가장 큰 혜택을 주는 분할안인 셈이다.

분리추진 시민단체를 후원한 팀 드레이퍼도 실리콘밸리의 유명 벤처투자자다. 그는 핫메일(Hotmail)과 트위터, 전기차 업체 테슬라, 온라인 전화업체 스카이프에 투자해 엄청난 돈을 벌었고, 최근 1년간 분리안이 성사될 수 있도록 500만 달러(51억원)를 지원했다. 아울러 이들 단체는 자신들만의 상원의원을 뽑아 정치적으로 실리콘밸리의 이익을 대변하고 싶은 욕구도 있다고 외신은 분석했다.

때문에 이에 반발하는 '하나의 캘리포니아' 캠페인이 전개되고 있고, 다른 주들도 상원의원을 10명이나 더 배출하는 분리안에 부정적인 태도를 나타내고 있다. 설사 캘리포니아주에서 국민투표가 통과되더라도 연방의회의 인준을 거쳐야 하기 때문에 실제 분리되기는 쉽지 않을 전망이다.

손병호 기자 bhson@kmib.co.kr