Tim Draper, a capital investor who has created many venture capital funds around the world, wants to split California into six states in order to isolate Silicon Valley and create fair representation of the California population in Congress.

The six new states would be: Jefferson, North California, Central California, West California, South California and Silicon Valley. Los Angeles would be in West California and would abide by the laws of a specific state legislature for West California. Each new state would have its own laws and taxes based on the businesses in the region, for example Silicon Valley with their technological focus. Draper plans to use this idea to relieve California’s debt by splitting it between the new states.

His goal for this project is for Silicon Valley to be able to create new policies directed at improving the technology companies that reside there. He wants it to be a place where innovators can test out products that aren’t yet approved by the government, such as drones and self-driving cars.

He also feels that California is too large to be governed effectively and that the people are weakly represented in the Senate. Draper believes that 12 senators would be more equipped to represent 38 million people than just two.

However, others have discovered some shortcomings in his plan. One of the major concerns is water transportation to the desert regions of West and South California. Water supplies would have to come through three new states in order to reach them, thus making both recipients entirely dependent on the other three for water. Another concern is the UC school system, which provides a well-rounded and reasonably priced college education for California residents. Under the plan, some of these new states would not have state schools within their borders that provide the same benefits such as a reduced tuition for state inhabitants. Also, with smaller populations in each state, taxes would most likely rise to cover the missing population.

His program, The Six Californias Initiative, is currently collecting signatures in order to get on the November ballot. However, many California residents oppose his plan and do not think it is realistic, therefore making it unlikely to pass.