Why is Idaho ranked eighth for the lowest overall tax burden in America (this includes its sales tax), while Oregon ranks 33rd? Oregon is 30% higher on a national scale?

As I read through the opinion pages of this paper on the upcoming Greater Idaho ballot measure, 31-007, I was reminded of how quickly hyperbole and rhetoric dominate and rise to the surface of opinions. Via unsubstantiated claims. Fortunately, facts and truth always rise above that.

Why are school test scores higher in Idaho than Oregon? Again, by almost 30%.

Eleven Eastern Oregon counties have debated, looked at and voted “yes” to promote this idea. These counties voted “yes” by over 60%.

Voters in Wallowa County need to sit down at the table with their friends and neighbors and vote “yes” on 31-007.

To those that say we should just move, I’d like to point out the obvious: We are. We are just simply proposing to take our homes, businesses, farms, ranches, churches, schools, and communities along with generations of lifetimes of blood, sweat and tears with us. In my own case, that represents 47 years working in over 4,500 homes throughout Union, Baker and Wallowa counties where I heard daily rural Oregonians’ frustration with 40 years of disenfranchisement by Portland. I didn’t move here to change it but to be a part of it.

Grant Darrow

Cove