SALEM, Ore. — Residents in eastern Oregon and Washington have discussed breaking away from their more liberal neighbors to form a new state for years, but a new twist has been added to the conversation: Why form a new state when the rural counties could just join Idaho instead?
An Oregon representative is expected to pitch the idea to state lawmakers during the current legislative session.
Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, said during his freshman year in the Oregon state Legislature in 2001 he tried to introduce the idea of creating a state of Eastern Oregon, but couldn’t even get a hearing on it.
“Our citizens are hurting,” Smith said to KATU’s Chris Liedle. “I think there are folks back home that have a level of frustration both with state government and with the federal government.”
However, he also said that although eastern Oregon provides the state with food and fiber, the west side of the state provides a tax base that supports state services.
Ken Parsons, a 72-year-old farmer, said the idea was floated offhand by someone else in a letter to the editor in the La Grande Observer.
“Annex into Idaho?” Parsons said. “I thought, gee, why didn’t we think of this before?”
After thinking about it for a couple of months and discussing it with friends, Parsons said he has decided to try to get input from residents of neighboring counties, including Umatilla and Morrow County.
“I mean it’s a simple idea, providing Idaho wants us.”
Parsons makes it clear that the battle is not between the left and the right.
“I don’t see this as a Democrat-Republican issue,” he said. “I see it as an urban and rural.”
Parsons says big city lawmakers passing restrictive environmental and economic laws are hurting farmers, hunters and ranchers.
Smith says to look at where the power lies.
“Keep in mind that 43 of the 60 legislators in this building come from Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas County,” he said. “It makes it difficult for a small population of Oregonians to have influence on major policy.”
Similar numbers can be found in Washington. He says the majority of political power in both Oregon and Washington resides along the I-5 corridor.
Smith recognizes the probability of such a move is nearly impossible.
“I think there is a level of frustration. I think there is an honest conversation, but we are rational enough to know that this won’t be occurring anytime soon.”
According to 2014 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Idaho currently has 1,634,464 residents. That would rise to 3,680,297 people if all 17 Oregon counties east of Hood River County and the 20 Washington counties east of King County jumped ship.
Oregon, meanwhile, would go from 3,970,239 residents to 3,471,709 and Washington would drop from 7,061,530 residents to 5,514,227.
How that would affect each state’s representation in Washington, D.C., would depend on how other states’ populations changed at the same time.
The 435 seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned every 10 years based on population counts in the latest census. If other states’ populations stayed roughly proportionate to their current levels, Washington would likely lose two of its 10 seats, adding them to Idaho’s current two seats, while it would be a close call on whether Oregon would hang on to its five representatives or lose one to another state.
The number of Electoral College votes a state receives is equal to the number of U.S. senators and representatives the state has, which would give Idaho more sway in presidential elections too.
To start the discussion, Parsons emailed every state legislator in all three states, contacted newspapers in the area and started a forum on Yahoo Groups titled “Oregon and Washington Joining Idaho” to discuss logistics like what would happen with assets like state prisons and universities in counties that voted to join Idaho.
“We want a voice,” Parsons said. “Give us our voice and we’ll take our lumps, if that is what it comes to.”
Ideally, Parsons says it would be the county’s decision to join Idaho or stay with its current state.
“If people in Malheur County say we want to be a part of Idaho, then I think the rest of Oregon should say, go for it,” he exclaimed. “This could theoretically go all the way across the state.”
Parsons realizes that government officials in Boise may not want to take on more rural counties, even if they also got population centers like Spokane, the Tri-Cities and Bend. The U.S. Congress would have to approve.
Smith knows annexation is a long shot. He’s asking for Oregon lawmakers to work together.
“Folks in eastern Oregon want to do everything they can to work with urban Oregon, but they want some empathy,” Smith told KATU’s Chris Liedle. “They want folks to understand that these are real issues that they’re voting on that affect us at home.”
“Annex into Idaho?” Parsons said. “I thought, gee, why didn’t we think of this before?”
I’d say that THIS is one helluva good reason, at the very least…
“In all, 45 states and the District of Columbia have sales tax. The only states without statewide sales and use taxes are Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon. Every state with a sales tax has a use tax too.”