The Idaho House Revenue and Taxation Committee finally got something right.

After torpedoing one property tax relief bill after another, and flirting with a major exemption for developers, Chairman Dolores Crow’s notorious panel approved an increase in the 24-year-old homeowner exemption Thursday by a voice vote. The bill calls for increasing the homeowner tax exemption from $50,000 to $75,000 and including the land as well as the house in the assessment calculations.

The action means stubborn committee members heard the clamor for tax relief from the 1,500 Idahoans who crowded into hearings and the protests from distant courthouses in Kootenai and Bonner counties. Increasing the homeowner exemption was a top priority for the hundreds who testified and witnessed the proceedings. Approval of the bill by the full House would somewhat offset the rejection of 14 other tax relief bills by the committee, but not completely.

Crow’s committee poked its head back into the sand when it refused the request by Kootenai County and other progressive counties to expand the local-option sales tax to cover a range of capital projects. Currently, the half-cent sales tax can be used to fund only jail expansions as well as provide property tax relief. By denying the request out of hand, the committee refused to recognize the tough job local government faces in constructing buildings and acquiring land.

Crow’s committee isn’t to be congratulated for voting for some tax relief. It’s more like the proverbial broken clock that occasionally gets the time right.

Crow showed her animosity toward reform when she reprimanded Rep. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, for suggesting lawmakers are hypocritical to say that rising property taxes are a local issue and then not expanding the option tax to help cities and counties. Unfortunately, Gov. Dirk Kempthorne provided cover for Crow during his State of the State Address when he called property taxes a “local issue” and refused to support local-option tax reform. Both the governor and Crow know that the state sets the guidelines for property taxes that the local governments must live with.

Amazingly, Crow led the charge to kill other forms of property tax relief, including proposals that capped taxes on homes and property values, while allowing an outrageous proposal to be introduced after her firm Jan. 27 deadline for property tax bills. The legislation, spearheaded by Tamarack Resort, would provide a major break for developers by taxing their property at one-third of its value.

Reps. Jim Clark and George Sayler, Kootenai County lawmakers who serve on the tax committee, were aghast at the bill, The Spokesman-Review’s Betsy Russell reported. They’d been told by Crow that it was simply a fix for an earlier tax bill. “I think that’s a terrible move. That goes against everything we’ve been trying to do for the taxpayers of Kootenai County,” said Sayler. “I’m surprised that they would have the gall to do it.”

Gall is the middle name for Crow and others who cater to the powerful but generally ignore the pleas for tax relief from average Idahoans.