Idea Whose Time Hasn’t Come

After a tortuous voyage through the Assembly, a bill that would make it easier for the San Fernando Valley to secede from Los Angeles is headed for the Senate floor, where, in all good sense, it should be defeated.

Partisan politics figures heavily here. The bill is the brainchild of Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) and moved this year only because Republicans had gained control of the lower house. As currently written, it has dim prospects in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Meanwhile, Boland’s Assembly career is ending because of term limits, and perhaps she needed an issue to improve her name recognition in a tough state Senate race.

Her bill would not authorize secession, just forbid the Los Angeles City Council to veto a Valley-only vote on the matter.

But just how much real interest in secession is out there? A Times poll showed in June that 46% of the Valley’s registered voters would support secession, but only half of those would cast a favorable ballot if secession meant higher taxes. One in four of those polled in the Valley had not even heard of the secession movement.

Moreover, no credible figures exist to support the notion that secession would be better for the Valley or the rest of the city.

Carving up the city’s infrastructure and revenues would be a gargantuan waste of time and energy. And that, if it ever could be accomplished without an endless succession of lawsuits, would be followed by the thankless task of starting new governments, new bureaucracies, new school districts, and, yes, new political and socioeconomic rivalries.

Los Angeles and all of its parts will be best served if the Senate kills the Boland bill.