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83rd OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2025 Regular Session
Senate Joint Memorial 7
Sponsored by Senator BONHAM (at the request of former Senator Dennis Linthicum) (Presession filed.)
SUMMARY
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject
to consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor’s brief statement of the essential features of the
measure as introduced. The statement includes a measure digest written in compliance with applicable readability
standards.
Digest: Urges two states to talk about moving state boundaries. (Flesch Readability Score: 66.1).
Requests discussion between Oregon and Idaho governments regarding the relocation of the
Oregon and Idaho border.
JOINT MEMORIAL
To the Governor of Idaho, and to the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Idaho Legis-
lature, in legislative session assembled:
We, your memorialists, the Eighty-third Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon, in legisla-
tive session assembled, respectfully represent as follows:
Whereas voters of 13 counties of eastern Oregon have approved ballot measures regarding
making eastern Oregon a part of Idaho; and
Whereas Article XVI of the Oregon Constitution provides for the relocation of state boundaries;
and
Whereas the Washington/Oregon border was relocated slightly in 1958; and
Whereas state borders have been relocated many times in the history of the United States, most
recently in 1999, by interstate compacts pursuant to Article I, section 10, of the United States
Constitution;and
Whereas state border relocations have moved entire counties into the jurisdiction of another
state, as in the case of Berkeley County and Jefferson County, which became a part of West Virginia
in 1863-several months after West Virginia was admitted to the Union without those counties; and
Whereas an interstate compact could include provisions for financial transfers, provisions to
smooth the transitions caused by moving a state boundary and provisions for a plebiscite to give
eastern Oregon as a whole, excluding the City of Bend, an opportunity to approve or reject an
interstate compact to move the Oregon/Idaho border; and
Whereas this Legislative Assembly values the principle of self-determination in general and
therefore does not wish to retain by force communities that wish to separate themselves from
Oregon; and
Whereas the voting patterns of eastern Oregon have for many decades resembled the voting
patterns of Idaho but not of the rest of Oregon, indicating a desire for a different style of
governance; and
Whereas many eastern Oregonians have begun to see Oregon government as a threat to the
livelihoods, liberties and values of their communities, as the preferences of the voters of north-
western Oregon appear at odds with the livelihoods and values of eastern Oregon communities; and
Whereas this Legislative Assembly considers the geographic extent of the state’s jurisdiction to
NOTE: Matter in boldfaced type in an amended section is new; matter [ italic and bracketed] is existing law to be omitted.
New sections are in boldfaced type.
LC 213
SJM 7
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be a secondary consideration, as the health of Oregon’s state budget is primarily determined by
average income per capita, not the extent of the state’s territory; and
Whereas eastern Oregon, which has an average per capita personal income similar to Idaho’s,
but much lower than Oregon’s, is better suited to contribute to Idaho’s state budget than to
Oregon’s state budget, in which eastern Oregon receives more than it contributes; and
Whereas a January 2022 SurveyUSA poll showed that only three percent of the voters of
northwestern Oregon would be willing to pay what it costs to have rural regions of Oregon treated
equitably in the Oregon state budget; and
Whereas the eastern Oregon map proposed by Citizens for Greater Idaho would put only nine
percent of the population of Oregon under Idaho’s jurisdiction; and
Whereas if eastern Oregon became a part of Idaho, the Oregon Legislative Assembly could focus
entirely on the needs of western Oregon and would become more politically homogeneous; and
Whereas the aforementioned SurveyUSA poll indicated that many conservative northwestern
Oregon voters would welcome the opportunity to move to a state with a more conservative political
orientation if it were within driving distance of their current community; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:
That we, the members of the Eighty-third Legislative Assembly, stand ready to begin discussions
regarding the potential to relocate the Oregon/Idaho border, and we invite the Idaho Legislature,
the Governor of Idaho and the Governor of Oregon to begin talks on this topic with this Legislative
Assembly; and be it further
Resolved, That a copy of this memorial shall be sent to the President Pro Tempore of the Idaho
Senate, to the Speaker of the Idaho House of Representatives, to the Governor of Idaho and to the
Governor of Oregon.
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