Five others are still collecting signatures but seem poised to quickly achieve the required number. Cedar, Skykomish and Freedom counties are being created out of King and Snohomish around Seattle. On the Canadian border, Pioneer County is being created out of Whatcom County. We have no say on how money is spent, finally we said enough is enough. Many of the issues that have brought this movement into being involve restriction on development and use of private property.
Leaders say they plan to eliminate most of the local regulations.
Other issues which have thrown the establishment into panic is the statement of the new county leaders that they intend to reassert local control over things like law enforcement and education, which have come increasingly under control of state and federal government. The mission statement of Citizens for River County, for example, says that the new county will accept no federal or state education funds. Rather than trying to maintain an expensive public school bureaucracy they say they will actually encourage alternatives like home schooling. It has been said that the ultimate voting power is the power to vote with your feet. When governments become too burdensome people leave their jurisdiction.