On Tuesday Jan 16, New California furthered its attempt to become the 51st state of the United States.

The founder of the group pushing for the change, Robert Paul Preston, read his own version of the Declaration of Independence for New California, which was a huge step for the potential separation of the Golden State.

In an interview with CBS News, Preston claimed that California has been ungovernable for a while and there needs to be a change.

“High taxes, education, you name it, and we’re rated around 48th or 50th from a business climate and standpoint in California,” said Preston.

“There’s something wrong when you have a rural county such as this one, and you go down to Orange County which is mostly urban, and it has the same set of problems, and it happens because of how the state is being governed and taxed,” Preston added.

According to USA Today, New California’s goal is to take over most of the current-day California, while leaving the coastal bay areas to themselves. This means that several large cities such as San Jose and San Diego would no longer be located in California.

At this point, USA Today claimed that Preston had not released any information indicating who would govern New California.

Andy Keatts, Assistant Editor and Senior Investigative Reporter for Voice of San Diego, admits that California and many other states all have corruption.

“California does have a share of corruption, many states have government have corruption,” said Keatts. “So does Maryland, Illinois, and New Jersey. Yes, California is corrupt, but it is a common characteristic.”

“They have many different people in the state, so operating as a single state is difficult, but it has been managed thus far for 200 years,” Keatts said. “I don’t see any reason to split it up into two smaller states,” Keatts added.

Keatts believes that the chance of California being split up is very unlikely.

“I think it is pretty unrealistic, in your or my lifetime, for the most part, for the people in the state, they don’t take it very seriously,” he said. “This happened two years ago and people basically laughed at it.”

Xander Rogers, a senior at Williston who resides in Anaheim, California, claimed that the idea of New California is very unrealistic.

“I think it is stupid,” said Xander. “I feel like it is basically what the United States has been trying to prevent for the past 150 years. If New California does happen, I personally think that there will be another civil war.”

Xander admitted that California was moderately corrupt to begin with.

“I agree that it is corrupt, to start, our governor knows very little about politics and he should be removed. That being said, I do not think that it is necessary to split up the state,” said Xander.

Accoriding to Business Insider, “a state can pass a constitutional amendment that that legalizes secession with a vote from three-fourths of the other 49 states. Amending the Constitution, according to the report, “is a feat difficult enough that it has happened only 17 times in 227 years.”