Oregon & Idaho legislators meet in Baker City on the Greater Idaho movement
By Joe Hathaway on Friday, October 20th, 2023 in Northeastern Oregon News
BAKER CITY – An Oregon lawmaker met with her counterparts in Baker to discuss potential next steps for the Greater Idaho movement.
Vikki Breese-Iverson (R-Prineville) met Rep. Judy Boyle (R-Washington County) and Rep. Barbara Ehardt (R-Idaho Falls) at the Geiser-Grand Hotel on Thursday, October 19th.
Malheur county commissioner Ron Jacobs was in attendance, along with leaders of the Greater Idaho movement. Breese-Iverson recently chose to step down from being the leader of the Republican caucus of the Oregon House.
“There’s been 12 counties that have voted to take this conversation forward,” said Breese-Iverson. “I’ve clearly heard from my constituents and I am here today because they’ve asked me to have this conversation.”
12 of the counties that have voted to begin discussions on Greater Idaho include Baker, Union and Wallowa counties.
“Why not have the conversation? When Idaho over the past couple of years had been the fastest growing state percentage wise for a couple of years with everybody moving in and we’re used to those wide open spaces. Why wouldn’t we want to have a conversation that would allow us to bring in a lot more land?” said Rep. Ehardt.
“The Idaho House has already stated that we are ready to have discussions with the Oregon Legislature on how to advance freedom for eastern Oregonians,” Rep. Judy Boyle said.
Indeed, in February, the Idaho House of Representatives passed a resolution stating as much. The meeting in Baker City today is the first meeting pursuant to that invitation.
“It is clear: people in central and eastern Oregon do not align with all the values of those in Portland and Eugene. Is Greater Idaho the answer? I am not sure but I am willing to turn over all the rocks possible, for the land and people I love.” said Breese-Iverson.
The ultimate goal of the Greater Idaho movement is to relocate the Oregon/Idaho state line to allow conservative, rural eastern Oregon to become a part of Idaho. Currently, the movement is asking state legislatures to have formal discussions that would later lead to an actual timeline and bill to send to Congress for ratification.
“The way you move a state line or move a border is to have two state legislatures come together and say where the border is, doesn’t make sense,” said Matt McCaw of Greater Idaho. “We can move it and we both agree that moving it here would be better for both states.”
“I have talked to many of my colleagues about this issue. It’s obviously one that hits the headlines often and it’s a big conversation and nobody actually knows what it actually means for our state, how it breaks down and what it looks like. So that’s part of why we’re here,” said Breese-Iverson. “That’s part of why I’m at this table and having this conversation because we do need to start having a conversation from voters forward.”
The Greater Idaho movement says it believes that western Oregon leaders should want to let eastern Oregon join Idaho because it would benefit Oregon’s state budget, and because eastern Oregon’s state senators came close to blocking votes in the Oregon Senate permanently, as greateridaho.org, their website, explains. The leader of the movement, Mike McCarter, wrote that moving the state line would be good for the income taxes of both states: “Portland metro incomes are so high that any middle-income county that departs the Oregon state budget increases the average income of both Oregon and Idaho.”
