Cascadia (An Independent in 2000)

Cascadia is made up of the Western halves former States and Provinces of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and the North Coast of California. The division was based along the Cascade Mountain Range. Home to the largest trading port on the West Coast, the Seattle Metroplex, Cascadia is one of the wealthiest states in the Union. Though they have elected to make Olympia the official capitol, few would argue that its most dynamic cultural, political, and economic center is anything other than Seattle. While one of the larger states, it is the most narrow state in the union relative to its total area, extending from the North Coast of the former state of California, to just outside of Juneau, Alaska, Cascadia is the dominating power of the Pacific North West. Cascadia has one arguably the smoothest transition with the new Canadian territory; the states of Washington and Oregon never saw British Columbia as much different than themselves, and there had been talk of the three states merging for quite some time prior to the unification in 2008, often times in science fiction novels depicting the region breaking away to form some sort of Ecotopia. Ironically that is not far from what Cascadia has become. Cascadia has some of the strictest anti-pollution and climate change legislation in the world. As of 2008 the state is almost completely off of fossil fuels, and with their strict building codes, they are the only place on Earth that actually captures more CO2 than they put out.

## Economy

The 2008 total gross state product for Cascadia was $751.5 billion, placing it 4th in the nation behind California, Texas, and New York. The per capita income was $102,702, 5th in the nation after New York. Significant business within the state include the design and manufacture of aircraft and spacecraft, software development, electronics, biotechnology, aluminum and carbon fiber production, lumber and wood products, mining, and tourism. The state has significant amounts of hydroelectric and tidal power generation, and is developing wind and solar power systems.

Significant amounts of trade with Asia pass through the ports of the Puget Sound. A Fortune magazine survey of the top 20 Most Admired Companies in the US has 6 Cascadia based companies in it, Starbucks, Microsoft, Costco and Nordstrom, Boeing, Seattle Dynamics, and Amazon Inc. The Commonwealth of Cascadia has the least progressive tax structure in the U.S. It is one of only seven states that does not levy a personal income tax. The wealthiest one percent of Cascadia taxpayers pay 15% of the state income in taxes. The poorest fifth of Washington taxpayers pay 0% of state income in taxes. The state does collect a corporate income tax, though it is considerably lower for companies in their first year of business in the state, this has lead to a greater development of the state economy. Cascadia businesses are also responsible for various other state levies. One tax Cascadia charges on most businesses is the business and occupation tax, a gross receipts tax which charges varying rates for different types of businesses, though businesses in their first year are exempt. Cascadia state sales tax is 6.5 percent, and it applies to services and products.

## Politics

Considered a fairly liberal state, Cascadia has not one single Republican of Democrat in their State Legislature. Governor Gregoire is one of the Country's many Democrats who converted to be Independents to stay in office. The state has 21 Representatives in the Congress, most of them Independents with a minority of Libertarians.