Blaine County boundary shift postponed
Blaine, Minidoka officials say they were blind-sided by
proposal
By TRAVIS PURSER
and GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writers
A bill sponsored last week in the Idaho Legislature by
Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, that would redraw the boundary between Blaine
and Minidoka counties appears to be indefinitely on hold following a
Monday meeting of county officials.
The bill proposes shifting 360,402 acres from Blaine
County’s southern panhandle to Minidoka County. The hamlet of Yale is
the only community in the sparsely populated region.
But Minidoka County Commissioner Dave Teeter said Tuesday
that Minidoka officials asked Cameron to withdraw the bill, and "he’s
going to back off" the issue.
Teeter said the three Minidoka commissioners decided to
ask Cameron to do that after conducting a conference call Monday with
Blaine County Commissioner Mary Ann Mix.
Cameron did not return several phone messages left by the Mountain
Express last week and this week, but Teeter said elected officials
from both counties needed to meet with each other and with people living
in the panhandle area of Blaine County before the bill goes any further in
the Legislature. The bill could be on hold until next year, he said.
Cameron’s bill "kind of caught everybody off guard
and got people a little upset," Teeter said, though the idea of
moving the county boundary is not new. "We’ve talked to your
assessor before—though not as a meeting, but we visited with [people in
the assessor’s office] about it."
In a March 12 letter to Sen. Sheila Sorensen, R-Boise,
chair of the Senate State Affairs Committee, Blaine County Commissioners
characterized Cameron’s proposal as a "hostile takeover" and
"an outrageous affront to our sovereignty." It also states
"no one" consulted any Blaine County elected official or
resident before Cameron introduced his bill.
Minidoka Commissioners Larry Harper and Teeter said
officials there have discussed the idea for years, but they were not
informed about the bill until after Cameron introduced it last week.
Harper said he learned about the bill from a newspaper article last week,
and he is not sure what prompted Cameron to introduce the bill now.
Because the panhandle area is home to very few residents—13
registered voters and perhaps 40 people in all—Blaine County
Commissioner Dennis Wright said he believes the proposed boundary shift
has nothing to do with gerrymandering but is a "money grab."
Wright expressed skepticism that Minidoka officials had
nothing to do with the bill’s introduction, and suggested they are
trying to appropriate the $150,000 to $200,000 the area contributes
through property taxes and federal funds to Blaine County’s $13 million
budget.
"Everyone in Blaine County would pay a little
bit" to make up the loss, Wright said. "It’s called theft
where I come from."
"Your county is such a wealthy county that I couldn’t
imagine them worrying too much about that," Teeter responded.
Wright said there may be other factors motivating the
issue. Blaine County is "not loved in the state," he said.
"If you want to get rid of Blaine County, you just
treat it like a corpse and all these vultures get to take a bite out of
it."
Wright, however, said that he could see some merit in a
boundary shift.
Currently, 11 students in the Blaine County panhandle area
attend schools in Minidoka County. Those schools received $7,513.18 last
year from the Blaine County School District as compensation.
But Minidoka County pays to provide police and fire
protection to the panhandle area.
In a written statement accompanying his bill, Cameron
stated that one of the proposal’s benefits would be that residents in
the panhandle area would be closer to their "communities of
interest." Currently the residents drive through Minidoka County to
reach the Blaine County courthouse.
Also, Cameron stated, the residents would have more
influence on political entities that represent them, such as the school
board or the commission.
If the Legislature passes the bill as it’s written, the
new Blaine County would consist of 1,337,438 acres, down from 1,697,840
acres. Minidoka County would grow to 850,031 acres, up from 489,629 acres.
The separation between the two would be drawn approximately from the
northeast corner of Minidoka County to a nearby corner of Butte County.
"It’s a fairly odd thing," Sen. Clint Stennett,
D-Ketchum, said. "Ordinarily a senator would talk to another senator
on something like this. [Cameron] has not even talked with the Blaine
County Commissioners."
Additionally, Stennett said, the bill is "way ahead
of itself."
Stennett interprets state law as requiring that both
counties involved in a boundary adjustment must consent by resolution to
the proposal.
"I don’t know where it came from, why it’s in
front of us or what the point is," Stennett said.
Stennett said Sen. Sorensen, told him she agrees that
consensus should be sought from the two counties involved before action is
taken at the Legislature. Sorensen told Stennett she would not further
entertain the bill in committee this legislative session, Stennett said.
Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, called Cameron’s move
"rude" and said she is "disappointed" with his lack of
communication on the issue.
Further, she said she traveled door-to-door in the area
last fall to meet some of her constituents and the issue of redrawing the
county lines did arise. She said none of the Yale-area residents she
talked to were interested in being part of Minidoka County for fear of
increased property taxes.
Blaine County Commissioner Wright said the residents’
property taxes would double.
Nonetheless, introduction of the bill has initiated a
debate about how appropriate the swap might be.
Blaine Cook, a Yale sugar beet farmer, said he hadn’t
heard about the proposal but was interested in discovering details.
Blaine County’s core, the Wood River Valley, is far off
and disconnected from the ways of life in its southern-most reaches, he
said.
North county bonds, development agreements and zoning
restrictions are unrelated to the potato, grain and sugar beet industries
that drive the area’s economy. The arid area is roughly 100 miles from
Bellevue as the crow flies. There are no paved roads through that region,
which includes vast lava fields from the Great Rift.
The differences between life in the Wood River Valley and
the rest of Blaine County continue to grow, Cook said. He said there’s
nothing for him to gain from such proposals as the November 1999 Blaine
County Recreation District bond proposal for Wood River Valley recreation
facilities.
"I’ve never set foot on one of those bike paths up
there, but I helped pay for ‘em," he said of the $1.7 million bike
path bond Blaine County voters approved in August 1988.
