Earlier in March, a Missouri State Representative, Mike Colona, proposed a bill to his fellow state reps. His bill was very unique, his bill is calling for St. Louis City the 51st state of America. Colona is the Rep. Of the 80th district, which is the Tower Grove South area, which is located within the city. Colona is also a openly-gay Democrat, one of three in Missouri openly gay people in the legislature in Jefferson City.  He has been in legislature since Jan. 2009. He is also the Minority Whip for the 96th General Assembly.  

According to Rep. Colona he does not want to be credited for being a founding father of a new state, but rather call for more rights for minorities and help solve problems our city has faced in the last few years. But, Colona feels if St. Louis were made a state it would be much easier to achieve the rights and laws he wants to make.

Many questions arise when this topic is brought up, such as who would be the governor of the new state?

“I don’t know, I would think we would hold an election to be fair,” said sophomore Gracie Steck.

One of the main reasons Colona has brought up this bill is that he wants more rights for St. Louis’ LGBT community. Being gay he has a unique insight on what it is like to be gay in the St. Louis city area. While this past summer gay marriage was legalized throughout the whole country, many Republican lawmakers disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling. While the main part of St. Louis city has Democratic lawmakers, the rural parts of Missouri have Republican lawmakers, and the LGBT community is not just strictly in St. Louis, so some Democrats feel if St. Louis was its own state, there would be less of a divide on the issues that have been presented involving the LGBT community involving the Republicans and Democrats. Another reason why Colona wants to make St. Louis into a state is gun control. Last year, St. Louis had the most violence in the past years. Violence involving the use of guns has risen dramatically in the last few years, especially in homicides in 2015 there were 188 homicides, in 2014 there were 159 homicides, and in 2013 there were 120, and there have been 41 so far this year. While both sides of the isle are working to drop the levels of gun violence, they have different ideas on how to achieve their goals. Democrats want to work on getting guns off of the street, while according to Colona, Republicans want to solve the issue by putting more guns onto the street. Once more, that shows the divide between the two lawmakers in our state. The Republicans and Democrats have have opposing views on many things involving Missouri’s politics, but gun control is one that has certainly stood out in the past few years.

Another topic that arises when this topic comes up is how would the citizens of St. Louis City feel if they became citizens of a new state? There would most likely be drastic changes to the city, because it would turn into a state. There would have to be new IDs distributed, zoning policies would change, almost everything legal and having to deal with identification would have to change. Some people that attend our school live in the city, so major things would be changing for them.

“I would feel like that is unnecessary and I feel it would not effect me that much,” said sophomore Grace Koulouriotis.

Some people are most likely wondering if it is really worth going through the process of making a new state for the things some Democrats are seeking out, and of course to some people it is worth it, and to some it is not.

“No, I do not think so. It is such a small population, and it is not that liberal that it would make a difference,” said Steck.

There are Republicans living in the St. Louis city, and some would obviously disagree with the Democrats decisions, so, once more, a question comes up, would more people move into St. Louis or would more move out?

“I think more people would move into the city because there is a rising liberal population, so they could escape the conservative population,” said Steck.

While the chances of St. Louis seceding Missouri is very unlikely, it is a very interesting thing to talk about and speculate. It is also very interesting that a lawmaker would have the guts to get up and say he wants to found a new state.  The reason this bill had a hard time passing is because there are many Republican lawmakers in rural Missouri but it is still quite interesting that a bill of this nature would come up.