Activists push to split California into 6 states

FILE: April 18, 2009: The skyline of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge appear above the evening fog in Sausalito, Calif. (REUTERS)

California's secretary of state has given the go-ahead for activists to start gathering signatures for a bizarre initiative that would split the state into six new states.

FOX40 reports that the plan is being pushed by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper, who says California is currently too big to govern efficiently.

Draper's effort is hardly the first, in California and elsewhere, to advocate the creation of breakaway states. But his initiative is more complex than most, calling for six distinct states, including one  -- which would include San Jose and San Francisco -- called simply, Silicon Valley.

Another proposed state reportedly would be anchored by San Diego, while another would be anchored by Los Angeles.

But skeptics complain that the plan is just a way for people like Draper to send tax revenue from wealthy areas back into those same neighborhoods.

The initiative also has a long way to go to get on the ballot, and stands little chance of ever getting approved. Draper would need more than 800,000 signatures to get his question on the 2016 ballot -- he has until July 18 to do so. Even if voters approved it, Congress would have to do the same.

According to FOX40, there have been about 220 efforts to divide California but all have failed.

One resident, Tim Karn, complained that the idea is just impractical.

"You'd need a whole new highway patrol, a whole new capital, all these other expenses," he told FOX40.

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