By historical standards, the recent action taken by Bonner County commissioners to order property assessments returned to last year’s levels doesn’t rank as high as the Boston Tea Party. No one tossed tea into Lake Pend Oreille. No one’s going to war to change the value of the family’s lake homestead. Yet.

But the bold – some might say reckless – decision by commissioners Karl Dye, Marcia Phillips and Joe Young to turn back the clock could be the tipping point for the property tax rebellion brewing in high-growth parts of Idaho. The Boston Tea Party spread to other harbors as copycats protested taxation without representation, too. Bonner County may have set the stage for widespread protest by ordering Assessor Judie Conlan to roll back assessments by Monday.

At best, the action will serve notice to the state that Bonner County residents are fed up with higher taxes prompted by escalating valuations and want tax relief immediately. At worst, the cheers from appreciative constituents ringing in the ears of county commissioners could change to jeers if the state tax commission imposes across-the-board assessment hikes to better reflect Bonner County market values. One thing is certain: The commissioners added an exclamation point to the property tax rebellion brewing in popular Idaho areas while the state sits on a $199.9 million surplus.

Idaho Republican leaders should stop playing their cat-and-mouse game with Gov. Jim Risch, who wants to call a special session to provide property tax relief by raising the sales tax if he has the votes to accomplish something. Obviously, he doesn’t yet. Equally obvious, supermajority Republicans have the ability to provide the critical relief. A move to reduce property taxes by about 20 percent by shifting the cost of school maintenance and operations to the sales tax failed in the Senate after passing the House by a wide margin.

Idaho Democrats have produced a noteworthy plan that would help pay for the same school costs without raising the sales tax by using $100 million from the current huge surplus and future revenue growth. Republicans can ignore the Democratic proposal. But they might be surprised in November. They should consider that 23 of 34 contested incumbent commissioners lost seats in the May primaries, including four Republicans in Bonner and Kootenai counties.

The issues of growth and property taxes were major factors in the Bonner and Kootenai races.

If the action by the Bonner County commissioners isn’t enough to awaken Republicans, an anti-property tax rally that attracted 350 angry residents in Coeur d’Alene earlier last week should. The crowd was clamoring for a Draconian measure that would cap property taxes like the old One Percent Initiative.

Bonner County has thrown down the gauntlet. It may suffer for the commissioners’ action. Rather than retaliate, however, Republican leaders should interpret the commissioners’ action as a signal that they’re out of time to address the state’s galvanizing issue in rapidly growing areas.