One California county is tired of being over-taxed and under-represented by Sacramento. So, its Board of Supervisors has placed a measure on the Nov. 8th ballot that has secession from the state as an option.
A consortium in San Bernardino is the latest group of people proposing to alter the boundaries of the state of California. The group wants the county to secede from California and create a 51st state that would be called Empire.According to real estate developer Jeff Burum, a member of the group, San Bernardino County is not getting its fair share from the state of California. The movement is supported by some local mayors such as Acquanetta Warren, mayor of Fontana, and Bill Velto, mayor of Upland.“We cannot continue to beg, and crawl … to get resources for our county… Let’s step out and be bold about it and let the people decide what they want to do.” Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren told the San Bernadino Board of Supervisors.
As of right now, secession is more of a consequence than a goal.
“I’m going to continue to say this every time I talk to anyone and I’m interviewed: (California) is the best state of the union,” said Jeff Burum, the Rancho Cucamonga real estate developer who first introduced the idea that turned into Measure EE on the Nov. 8 ballot.“I would never willfully want to leave this state,” Burum continued. “But I can tell you this, if you’re just going to continue to abuse me and abuse us, sometimes you don’t have a choice but to stand up for yourself.”Burum and others, such as Board of Supervisors Chairman Curt Hagman, say Measure EE is about political and economic fairness for the largest county in the United States and one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation.“Do you want to spend our taxpayer dollars to do a study of what we are, or are not getting, as a county, and then fight for that, in a way we haven’t done before?” Board of Supervisors Chairman Curt Hagman asked his fellow board members at their Aug. 3 meeting.
Meanwhile, voters in Eastern Oregon in two counties will have a chance to vote on whether they should secede and join neighboring Idaho.
The movement has already gained support from residents in nine Eastern Oregon counties, with those in two others set to vote next month on whether they want their lawmakers to work on redrawing the border.State legislatures of both Idaho and Oregon would also have to sign off on the plan before it goes forward to the United States Congress.Doing so makes sense, spokesman Matt McCaw argues, because Idaho’s politics more closely match those residents’ conservative views.’It makes more sense for Eastern Oregonians to get state-level governance coming from Idaho, where they share their values, share their culture, share their politics, than it does to be governed by Western Oregon,’ he told FOX News Digital on Thursday.
I reported on the “Greater Idaho” movement previously. It appears it is gaining a considerable amount of support.
The results of both ballot measures should make for additional, interesting analysis on Nov.8th.
Here’s hoping voters can at least make Greater Idaho happen!
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