SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) - Lawmakers returning to Salem for the start of the Legislative session this week are being greeted by roadside electronic billboards encouraging them to "Free Eastern Oregon" by moving the Oregon-Idaho border. There are also bills being introduced in the Legislature to advance their cause. The billboard campaign is the work of
What’s wrong with the idea?
A) eastern Oregon all combined has about the GDP of Portland. If it were it’s own state, it’d be among the poorest and require tens of billions of federal funds to operate at all. If it joined Idaho, Idaho would actually become less productive per capita while the remaining Oregon becomes more productive.
B) if independent it would give two solid red senate seats
C) most of its water comes from the Cascades, which would absolutely vote to remain in western Oregon, meaning they’d forever be dependent on a blue state, and would be taking advantage of blue states investment into water management while contributing nothing.
D) this move, if allowed at the federal level, would encourage other balkanization of states, creating mass confusion among businesses, generating billions in new costs to handle the bureaucratic strain, and generally make doing anything positive with taxes impossible for decades. That’s without dealing with the massive number of lawsuits, e.g. decades long contracts with states that Might be invalidated with the new state that needs to be settled.
It seems like the joining Idaho parts of a) and c) could be just as easily argued if it was part of Idaho trying to join Oregon.
If it’d be a drain on Idaho surely it’s a drain on western Oregon currently. There seems to be a core issue with Oregon (and other western states). Borders shouldn’t be based on how we can make 90° corners but instead geography or culture. Hence why CA also has those state of Jefferson people.
I used to live in Massachusetts, and it’s pretty cool to not have the economic and political drain of conservative rural areas.