Idaho lawmakers vote on Oregon secession memorial

By Oregon Campaign Watch,

The Idaho House of Representatives voted in February to support the nonbinding Greater Idaho bill, which means their lawmakers can conduct formal talks with their Oregon counterparts about shifting the state line westward to the Cascade Mountains, according to the Idaho Capital Sun.   The bill’s proponents in Idaho liked the idea of moving the Oregon state line—with its liberal drug laws, inflexible land-use laws, high taxes —farther away from population centers. And they said a Claremont Institute economic analysis showed that adding rural Oregon counties to Idaho would benefit the state financially.  Proponents of the Greater Idaho movement want the Oregon Legislature to hold a hearing on SJM 2, which has garnered support from 11 conservative rural Oregon counties and, according to a 2022 poll, a whopping 68 percent of northwestern Oregonians. Four other counties support the move but have yet to vote on ballot measures, KOIN-6 reported. Supporters say Eastern Oregon is much more similar to Idaho than to their counterparts in western Oregon.  The measure would shift more than 60 percent of Oregon’s land mass into Idaho.   Oregon allows recreational use of marijuana and, in 2020, decriminalized hard drugs regulated under the federal Controlled Substances Act.