Idaho Senate didn’t pass “Greater Idaho” bill, but it would have…

The Idaho House of Representatives voted in favor of the “Greater Idaho” bill in February, and our lobbyist counted a healthy majority of the Idaho Senate in favor of the bill, but the Idaho Senate State Affairs Committee never sent the bill to the Senate floor, and this year’s regularly-scheduled legislative session ended today.

We will spend this summer educating Senate Majority Leader Kelly Anthon about Greater Idaho, because he was too busy running the Senate to take a meeting with us this session. We feel that if we win him over, we will be able to get to the Senate floor next year and pass the bill. We will also try to convince Assistant Majority Leader Abby Lee. Senate President Chuck Winder supports our movement. Republican Caucus Chair Mark Harris seemed to favor the bill in our last meeting with him, thanks to your phone calls and emails. All of these senators were on that committee this year, and Senator Harris was the chairman of the committee.

Greater Idaho Movement Won Anyway?

Our next step is to meet with the executive branches of both states to make our case and ask the governors to start discussing with the other state the possibility of moving the state line. The vote count in the Idaho Senate and Idaho House should encourage Governor Little to act, so we are calling this session of the Idaho Legislature a win. The purpose of the bill was just to show that the Legislature supports the idea of reaching out to the other state, and they’ve shown that now already.