Thursday, 07 January 2016 Elizabeth Larson
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – In the latest developments in the effort to form a 51st state, on Tuesday the Sierra County Board of Supervisors voted to adopt a resolution declining to join the State of Jefferson, while supporters went to Sacramento the following day to rally for leaving California.
The Sierra County Board vote was 3-2, which followed a lengthy discussion by board members, opponents and supporters.
That final action followed an initial vote in which the board voted down tabling the matter indefinitely.
While the board of the 3,000-resident “frontier” county acknowledged that Northern California counties like theirs face serious challenges that state legislators need to work harder to address, members nevertheless “also see the benefit of sharing a state government with our suburban and urban counterparts, a state that is the 8th largest economy in the world,” the resolution said.
The resolution faulted “unverifiable petition signatures” requesting adoption of a declaration for Sierra County to break away from California and a failure of State of Jefferson proponents “to prove financial viability or that forming a new state will solve the above problems and will likely never be approved by the California Legislature and the United States Congress.”
“While rural America faces many challenges, we all live here by choice, and often for the lifestyle,” said Sierra County Board of Supervisors Chair Lee Adams. “Both urban and rural areas give and gain from each other and both are dependent on each other. California prospers because of its entire landmass, and is extremely blessed by nature, and I will continue to work within the existing state structure for the benefit of all of Sierra County.”
