Clark County Assessor Peter Van Nortwick recalled attending a Washington Association of County Assessors meeting where one of his counterparts from a smaller county joked that larger counties had plans to eliminate the smaller ones.

“It does make sense,” Van Nortwick, a Republican, said he concluded after mulling the idea.

Now Van Nortwick, along with Democratic County Treasurer Doug Lasher, are drumming up support for the idea of merging the state’s 12 most sparsely populated counties, such as Skamania County (population 11,300), with their larger, better-funded neighbors, such as Clark County (population 435,500). The two have crunched numbers from the state’s Office of Financial Management and estimate their proposal could save $90 million annually.

The two also are proposing a constitutional amendment to require counties to have a population of at least 25,000 or merge with a neighboring county.

The two have presented their ideas to state officials and legislators. State Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, said she initially scoffed at the idea but said in the upcoming legislative session that begins next month she will introduce a bill to study the impact of merging smaller counties.