Supervisor Revives Secession Chatter

A movement that seeks to break 13 counties away from the state of California has started in Riverside County.

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone, Third District, announced Thursday that he will ask leaders in Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino, Kings, Kern, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa and Mono counties to consider seceding from California.

Under the proposal, the leaders would be asked to consider forming a 51st state, the State of South California, Stone said in a statement sent by Ray Smith, spokesman for the Riverside County Executive Office.

"He is so disenfranchised with the state's inabilities," said Verne Lauritzen, Stone's chief of staff.

"So he is recommending we start some discussions with other counties, and there are lots of them.

"He is dead serious."

Lauritzen said Stone, who represents the cities of Murrieta, Temecula, Menifee, Canyon Lake, Hemet and San Jacinto, as well as several unincorporated communities, is largely frustrated with the passage of Senate Bill 89.

The bill threatens to dismantle newly incorportated cities because it diverts vehicle license fee revenue to fund public safety.

Stone is not the only one who is opposed to Senate Bill 89.

Assemblyman Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert, as well as Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, 66th District, Assemblyman Paul Cook, 65th District, Assemblyman Jeff Miller, 71st District, Senator Bill Emmerson, 37th District, and Senator Bob Dutton, 31st District, have all asked the governor to reconsider amending the bill.

Stone is slated to bring the secession proposal to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors on July 12.

Stone suggested the new state consider a part-time legislature, shifting governance more toward local control. Part-time legislators might receive only a $600 per month stipend and no other financial benefits except travel expenses to the new state capitol, he said.

WATCH A VIDEO OF STONE TALKING ABOUT HIS PROPOSAL.

Also open for consideration would be doing away with term limits, actually enforcing the state’s borders, adopting reasonable sales taxes and a provision like Proposition 13 that would control property taxes.

Counties and cities interested in the proposal, including those Stone has not already identified, would be invited to sit down and discuss the proposal.

He also suggested convening a meeting at the Riverside Convention Center, where residents and officials from each county and city would be welcome to offer ideas and testimony.

“Are there huge challenges? Absolutely,” Stone acknowledged. “But the destruction of California has to stop and we won’t know what we can accomplish unless we sit down and consider the possibilities.”