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Two New Californias: An Equal Division, Historical And Financial Analysis, Assembly Office Of Research

California Assembly

This report focuses on four aspects of dividing the state:

1. The process,
2. The national and state history of dividing states,
3. The geographic source of the state's General Fund income and the geographic distribution of the state's General Fund expenses, and
4. The impacts of alternative boundary lines on the budget of each new state.

The U.S. Constitution allows a state to be divided into two states if "consent" is given by the state legislature and by the Congress. Four new states have been divided from "mother states:" Vermont from New York, Kentucky from Virginia, Maine from Massachusetts, …