A proposal to begin talks to explore a merger between Idaho and much of eastern Oregon is moving ahead in the Idaho legislature.
On Monday, a resolution that would authorize discussions between the two states’ legislatures advanced out of the State Affairs Committee. It moves next to the full House of Representatives.
Proponents of the Greater Idaho movement who testified included Mark Simmons, a former Republican Speaker of the House in Oregon. Simmons is from northeast Oregon’s Union County - one of 11 counties where residents have approved advisory ballot measures to join Idaho.
“We want to see the kind of law that reflects faith, family, moral virtues, self reliance, hard work, the things that Idaho is based on, applied on our side of Oregon,” he said.
Simmons’ eagerness to find a new political home is reciprocated by several Idaho legislators, including Barbara Ehardt, a Republican from Idaho Falls who is one of the co-sponsors of House Joint Memorial 1, which calls for discussions with the Oregon legislature.
“Why wouldn’t we want to have a conversation that involved bringing in people that are very much like-minded like us as Idahoans?” she said.
She and other legislative sponsors tout the potential influx of tax money from nearly 400,000 Oregonians and the shift of a Congressional seat from eastern Oregon to Idaho.
A handful of Idaho residents also weighed in in support, including Klamath Falls, Oregon native John Lawson, a retired attorney who now lives in Idaho.
“I’ve been in Boise now 12 years and I love it, but I want eastern Oregon to be part of my state and I say that passionately and I ask you to open your arms and welcome in the people of that state,” Lawson said.
Matt McCaw, a spokesman for Greater Idaho, says his organization envisions more than three-fifths of the land mass of Oregon shifting to the Gem State, but only about 10% of its population.
“As we’ve moved forward, we’ve narrowed that map down to those places where people are overwhelmingly voting yes, we do want this to move forward,” McCaw said.
In order for any border shifting to occur, the proposal needs the assent of both the Idaho and Oregon legislatures, then the permission of Congress. It’s a heavy lift, Ehardt and her Oregon allies admit, but they say shifts like this have happened before.
Though the Idaho committee advanced the measure with just one dissenting vote, legislators had questions about the process and whether adding such a large swath of land to Idaho would be like attaching a siphon to the state budget.
“I think it would be up to the two state legislatures to decide how do we want to make this transition so that it doesn’t become a drain on the state of Idaho,” McCaw said. “The last thing we want to do is be a burden on anybody. We want to come along side. We want to join. We want to make everyone stronger.”
McCaw says public opinion polling in both states shows strong support, including from people in western Oregon.
Simmons says a similar resolution has been introduced in the Oregon Senate.
