| mrstickball said: IMO, its a very interesting idea, and pretty cool. California is incredibly large with a very polar population. Although the state is 60-65% democrat, it is due to two areas - SF and LA. The rest of the state is a bit more Republican and mixed like the rest of the west. The new state would have about 1/3rd the population and economy, and would be about 50/50 republican and democrat. Additionally, it'd force both sides to deal with the taxation and budgetary issues. The heavily Democratic state would have a supermajority and could likely reach whatever budgetary decision they wanted to without interference, while the new state can strike out on its own and fix some of the woeful laws that the current state has (which require a public vote on tax increases - and of course, they never pass). |
it's not that it takes a public vote for tax increases that is crazy. It's that it takes a 2/3ds majority to pass them. So they can be done by the legislature as well, just not when all republicans vow to never increase taxes ever under any circumstances. Democrats are justa little shy of 2/3 majority in both houses. 2 Votes short.
