A great moment for the joint legislative committee studying Idaho property tax relief occurred when state Sen. Shawn Keough banged her shoe on a table.

Some may recall Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe in anger in October 1960 after being questioned at the United Nations about his country’s imperialism. The Sandpoint Republican was miffed, too. But she simply wanted the concerned citizens crowded into the Sandpoint High School auditorium earlier this summer to behave themselves. As co-chairman of the study committee, she assured North Idahoans at meetings in Sandpoint and Coeur d’Alene that the committee had heard their message and would respond with legislation during the 2006 legislative session.

Keough may need to use that navy pump again if she hopes to gain the attention of, and win a blessing for reform from the House Revenue and Taxation Committee and its notorious roadblock, Chairman Dolores Crow, R-Nampa. The dozen meetings held by Keough’s task force, which attracted 1,000 Idahoans, will be for naught unless Crow and a committee consisting largely of ultraconservatives buy into the need for property tax relief. In the 2005 session, the committee killed eight bills calling for forms of that relief while providing a major exemption for Micron Technology.

If Keough, her task force and North Idaho lawmakers run into resistance from the Revenue and Taxation Committee again, they shouldn’t blame Crow and her panelists, however. Crow is what she is: the wrong legislator in the wrong place at a vital time when tax laws may need an overhaul, or at least the property tax part of them. Rather, the blame should go to House Speaker Bruce Newcomb and other Republican leaders for not demanding reform from stubborn committees.

Newcomb and others have given lip service to property tax reform after learning of the angry crowds that converged at courthouses in Kootenai and Bonner counties earlier this year. Property owners in boom areas, such as Ada, Kootenai and Bonner counties, fear they will be taxed out of their homes unless elected officials pass legislation to rein in rapidly escalating property taxes prompted by exploding values. Among the horror stories heard by the interim committee was one owner’s lament after his property value had jumped 243 percent in one year.

The agitated mood of property owners in many parts of Idaho should remind lawmakers of the revolt that led to the tax-limiting One Percent Initiative in 1978. Local governments in Idaho escaped the potential devastating impact of the initiative, which was patterned after California’s Proposition 13, because it conflicted with Idaho’s constitution and tax system. In its place, the Legislature later approved a 5 percent property tax cap for local governments.

The Legislature could fan the embers under two tax initiatives already submitted to the secretary of state’s office if it fails to act properly again.

The best approach to property tax reform, of course, is a thoughtful measure hammered out by the qualified lawmakers during the next session of the Legislature.