LIVE: Investor Tim Draper's Plan To Make Silicon Valley The Richest State In The Country
We'll be covering the press conference live below. It's expected to start momentarily.
But for now, here's some background on the proposal.
Last month, we got word that Silicon Valley investor Tim Draper wants to split California into six separate states.
Just last week, California state election officials gave the green light to the Six Californias initiative.
In order to qualify for the November state ballot, Draper and his supporters have to collect over 807,000 voters statewide by July 14.
If this goes through, the state of Silicon Valley would become the richest state in the US in terms of per capita income, according to legislative analysts. The state of Central Valley would become the poorest state measured by per-capita income, ranking lower than Mississippi.
Here's the rationale: California's population is 6x greater than the average state's population, which means that the state isn't fairly represented with senators in Washington. It would also be a way, Draper says, for each state to start fresh and for people to move from state to state "more freely."
But creating six Californias would screw up the water infrastructure. "Silicon Valley" and "West California" are the largest water importers, but the three poorest states in the proposal have most of the supply. One of the three poorest states would also have the most prisons.
This isn't the first time Californians have proposed a split. In 1859, voters approved the splitting of California into two states, but Congress never acted on the request because of the Civil War.