Ever wonder how Californians feel about the size of their state? Slate, in covering a story about the State Supreme Court removing an initiative statute to break the State of California into 3, happens to have an answer to that:
Proposition 9 was unpopular with California residents, too. According to a statewide April poll, 17 percent of respondents said they supported the measure to split California into three states, while an overwhelming 72 percent of respondents opposed the initiative.
While for some folks, states feel a bit obsolete, for others they remain an important part of the collective consciousness. And what brought on the proposal? A dissatisfied billionaire, of course:
Draper, who has sunk more than $1.2 million into passing Proposition 9, criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling. “Apparently, the insiders are in cahoots and the establishment doesn’t want to find out how many people don’t like the way California is being governed,” Draper said in a statement. He also noted that the six justices “probably would have lost their jobs” under his proposed three-state plan. …
Draper wants to dismantle the state because he believes California is too large to run effectively, citing the state’s high taxes and cost of living compared with its poor public services. While Draper’s professed goal of improving California’s governance and standard of living is admirable, it is unclear whether breaking up California would serve as an effective remedy to any of the issues currently facing the state.
How is California doing? Turns out, depends on your metric. US New & World Report rank them #9, noting their median household income of $67,739 (from May of this year). Back in 2016, L.A. Weekly declared California as “America’s Poverty State,” saying:
The nickname is the Golden State. And, true to form, we have more billionaires than any other country besides China and the United States itself. But we’re also the nation’s poorest state. Again.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s latest “Supplemental Poverty Measure” concluded that about one in five Golden State residents — 20.6 percent — lives in poverty. But the news isn’t all bad. It comes as the bureau also reported that, nationwide, “Real median household income increased by 5.2 percent between 2014 and 2015, while the official poverty rate decreased 1.2 percentage points.”
And Rich States, Poor States ranked California as #47 earlier this year. The trick here? They’re ideologically fixed on taxes and similar issues, listing hot topics such as estate taxes (Californian has none, so they get a rating of #1 in that category) and “right-to-work” laws (California has none, and so they get a rating of #50 – but how does this have an impact on ratings?).
It’s all about that prism you have in front of your eyeballs, isn’t it?
Back to Mr. Draper, it might be interesting to know which prism is glued to his face, but honestly, I’m not all that interested. He may think the State Supremes would lose their jobs, but perhaps he should think of it this way – if the State were to split into three, now there’d be Supreme Courts for three States to populate – and experienced personnel with a good record are always at a premium.
