VALE – Voters will decide in November whether to get rid of a county ordinance that compels officials to meet and discuss shifting the Idaho border to include rural Oregon.
Measure 23-74 asks whether the ordinance – approved by voters in 2021 – should be repealed. If voters pass the measure, the Malheur County Court – the county judge and commissioners – will no longer be required to meet three times a year to discuss how to promote the interests of the county in any negotiations to relocate the Idaho-Oregon border.
The election is Nov. 5.
The Malheur ordinance is one of at least 13 similar decrees passed by voters in rural Oregon counties.
Supporters of the ballot measure believe the county meetings – held the second Monday in January, May and September – are a waste of time for elected officials.
“From my perspective, we have spent a lot of community and county resources to have separate meetings that really don’t have an impact,” said David Armstrong, a chief petitioner – along with Ontario residents Blu Fortner – of the measure and members of the Greater Oregon PAC.
The ordinance was backed by the group Greater Idaho, a nonprofit organized by residents from eastern, central and southern Oregon. The goal of the group is to move 18 Oregon counties into Idaho.
The process to move the Oregon-Idaho border would require the approval of both state legislatures and an act of Congress.
Fortner, who led the effort to create the Greater Oregon PAC, said the meetings three times a year are “not effective.”
“If we can stop talking about moving to Idaho, it opens up a whole new range of possibilities,” he said.
Armstrong said the process to redraw the border is burdened by many issues that, so far, haven’t been addressed.
“There is the question of how do you handle the prison, which is owned by the state,” he said, referring to Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario. “You have a whole host of things about taxes.”
Ron Jacobs, Malheur County commissioner, said the meetings have not been well attended.
“I don’t think they (the meetings) have been very effective. I don’t think the proponents really got organized,” he said.
Jacobs said will honor the wishes of voters on the issue.
“If they vote not to have the meetings, that’s what we will do,” he said.
Armstrong said moving Idaho’s border to include Malheur County would ultimately be a bad idea because of the potential loss of government jobs.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, just over 17% of jobs in the county are local, state or federal government positions.
Armstrong said he felt there was some confusion regarding the intent of the county ordinance.
“So, I think from the folks I’ve talked with, it seemed like many people felt it was sold one way and when it was passed it was being used in a way that was different,” he said.
Mike McCarter, a La Pine retiree who is the president of Move Oregon’s Border/Greater Idaho, said he doesn’t see a problem with the effort to repeal the county ordinance. McCarter spearheaded the campaign to move Idaho’s border more than four years ago.
However, he isn’t against the proposal because “not a lot of people” show up for the local meetings.
“I attended several of the meetings over there over the years and there wasn’t a lot of activity,” he said.
McCarter said his intent in the border shift movement is to raise awareness of the issues facing rural Oregonians and to seek solutions at the Legislature.
“So, they realize there is a problem between the east and west side and can we sit and talk about it? To date, we’ve met a stonewall in the Oregon Legislature,” he said.
McCarter said his group will continue its efforts on the border alignment.
Elected officials, he said, “need to be aware of some the laws they are putting forth and how they affect us in rural Oregon,” he said.
McCarter said he is not opposed to meeting with members of the Greater Oregon PAC.
“I’d love to talk to those folks over there,” he said.
Fortner said the political action committee wants to chat with McCarter as well.
“We have as an ideal goal to start collaborating with the Greater Idaho folks to get some of their basic message to Salem,” he said.
News tip? Contact reporter Pat Caldwell at [email protected]
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