Arizona
- Russell Pearce, a state legislator, has proposed a bill which would ease county splits, as part of his effort to split off the East Valley (Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert and Guadalupe) portion of Maricopa County. County splitting rules were made more restrictive after the formation of La Paz County, Arizona in 1983, which required a significant state investment to keep the county running as the result of its small tax base.
- There is an ongoing movement in Lake Havasu City to split from Mohave County.
- In the late 1930s, differences between mining and ranching interests in Cochise County, Arizona spurred a proposal to split the county, with the new county's seat at Willcox, which the state Legislature ultimately rejected.
- In the 1980s, a bill was successfully passed in the state legislature to create an all Indian county out of the northern halves of Navajo and Apache Counties, and the northeastern half of Coconino County. Non-Indian communities in the southern region of these counties felt that the Navajo and Hopi Nations do not pay a fair share in local taxes. The bill was vetoed by then governor Bruce Babbitt, who placed a five-year moratorium on its consideration. Subsequent attempts to revive the bill failed and the issue has not resurfaced in recent years.
Read more about this topic: List Of U.S. County Secession Proposals
Famous quotes containing the word arizona:
“The Great Arizona Desert is full of the bleaching bones of people who waited for me to start something.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“Desert rains are usually so definitely demarked that the story of the man who washed his hands in the edge of an Arizona thunder shower without wetting his cuffs seems almost credible.”
—Administration in the State of Ariz, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)