‘Empire’ state? San Bernardino County developer pushes idea of seceding from California

Citing disproportionate allocation of assets and “unfunded mandates,” a San Bernardino County developer proposed this week that the Board of Supervisors discover seceding from California to type a brand new state that might be known as “Empire.”

“Our Sheriff’s Division, our judges, are always taxed with an excessive amount of with not sufficient assets,” Jeff Burum, chairman of improvement agency Nationwide Group Renaissance, stated Tuesday on the Board of Supervisors assembly.

“The state of California continues to allocate assets to the high-cost areas to our detriment and different inland valley communities,” he stated. “It’s time to cease it.”

Burum proposed placing the problem on the November poll.

“If we placed on an advisory vote for simply San Bernardino County residents, a easy sure or no vote: Do they help [the board] trying into … seceding from the state of California, I promise you, you’re going to get an affirmative vote,” he stated.

Becoming a member of Burum in favor of the proposal have been the mayors of Upland and Fontana, who echoed his considerations relating to the necessity for assets for public works and different capabilities.

“We can not proceed to beg and crawl and squirrel depend … to get assets for our county,” stated Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren. “We have now hundreds of thousands of residents which have wants, and the county is our lifeline, and that lifeline continues to be choked.”

“Now we’re listening to that we’re going to need to have all electrical automobiles by 2035,” stated Upland Mayor Invoice Velto. “I’m curious the place they’re going to get the cash for the roadways when the fuel tax begins dropping.”

California plans to halt the sale of latest combustion-engine automobiles by 2035, requiring new automobiles offered to be zero-emission however not banning gasoline-powered engines totally, with a view to reduce down on dangerous emissions which are fueling the local weather disaster.

“How they count on cities like Upland and plenty of different cities in our county to realize these mandates once we don’t have the funds is simply unimaginable,” Velto stated.

On the shut of the assembly, board Chairman Curt Hagman expressed his help for exploring the secession thought additional.

Hagman stated he was not solely displeased with the monetary points but additionally “fed up with the best way they deal with our public security.”

“I help the trigger,” he stated. “It’s about dropping the power to control on an area degree, which this nation was based mostly on. It was based mostly on states’ rights, based mostly on native management.”

The board couldn’t take motion on the proposal Tuesday, however the situation might be mentioned if it have been to seem on a later agenda.

Each Hagman and Warren acknowledged the unlikelihood that the proposal would succeed.

“I do know individuals will say, ‘Y’all went loopy,’” Warren stated. “Sure, we have now. We have now went loopy to serve others.”

“It’s one in one million that we’ll achieve success at this level,” Hagman stated, including that he hoped exploring such a transfer would a minimum of ship a message to the state.

County Counsel Tom Bunton illustrated the chances stacked in opposition to profitable secession: A brand new state has not been fashioned by separating from one other since West Virginia did so in 1863. No new state has joined the union since Alaska in 1959.

The proposal is the newest chapter in an extended historical past of parts of California making an attempt to secede, citing political and monetary divides.

In 2013, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted to discover seceding from California to type the brand new state of Jefferson. As of 2022, Siskiyou County stays a part of the state.