Attempts to allow California to secede from the United States fizzled earlier this year after the Yes California movement shuttered, but the campaign may have found a new, unlikely ally: a state lawmaker in Utah.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports Republican state Rep. Paul Ray is drafting a resolution for Utah's next legislative session that would support California's efforts to become an independent country.

He told the newspaper California was out of touch with the rest of the country, and recommended Utah levy tariffs against the state were it to become the California Republic.

It's not clear if the resolution will make it to the floor for debate, or what would happen if lawmakers were to take it up.

The Tribune reports the House Minority Leader, a Democrat, openly laughed at the proposal and said it wasn't appropriate to encourage other states to leave the country in light of the Civil War.