Should San Bernardino County Secede? One Official Thinks So

Could San Bernard County become part of a different state?

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone, Third District, is proposing just that.

Stone announced Thursday that he will invite leaders from 13 counties to discuss a seceding from the state and forming the State of South California.

The proposed new state could include San Bernardino, Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, Orange, Kings, Kern, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa and Mono counties.

"He is so disenfranchised with the state's inabilities," said Verne Lauritzen, Stone's chief of staff, in a phone interview late Thursday.

"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 communities of Murrieta, Temecula, Menifee, Canyon Lake, Hemet and San Jacinto, as well as several unincorporated areas, is largely frustrated with the Legislature's passage of Senate Bill 89.

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

The new cities are dependent on the vehicle license fee revenue.

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.

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 Prop. 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.”