An Idaho property tax rebellion won’t be needed, after all.

In less than three months, Idaho legislators have moved from a lukewarm position toward property tax relief to passing one of the most important relief measures in years, raising the homeowner’s exemption from $50,000 to $75,000.

The distance legislators traveled before approving the common-sense bill began ominously with Gov. Dirk Kempthorne proclaiming in his State of the State speech that property tax is an issue for cities and counties, not the state.

Adding to the gloomy outlook for property tax relief this year was the four-square opposition by state Rep. Dolores Crow, R-Nampa, the stubborn, longtime chairwoman of the House Revenue and Taxation Committee.

Now, Kempthorne is poised for bigger things as he appears to be a shoo-in to become the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior, Crow’s retiring, and the Legislature has increased the homeowner’s exemption and embraced another relief bill.

By supporting property tax relief, state lawmakers have sidestepped a classic game of political brinkmanship with angry constituents and probably avoided the return of the One Percent Initiative, made popular by the late Ron Rankin of the Kootenai County Property Owners Association, calling for draconian relief measures. Several were in the pipeline when the 2006 session began. However, lawmakers should press on until property tax problems are fully addressed.

Senate approval of a resolution for another interim committee to continue studying the property tax issue was a good next step.

The two relief measures passed by lawmakers so far this session should quell property tax unrest. By raising the homeowner’s exemption 50 percent, experts predict that the owners of average homes in resort areas, such as Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Sandpoint, should realize a property tax savings of $300 per year.

Legislators should be commended for expanding the exemption to include the value of land to prevent county assessors from reaping extra tax dollars by overvaluing land and undervaluing improvements. Also, lawmakers showed compassion for low-income elderly and disabled by upping the circuit breaker limit.

North Idaho legislators played key roles in moving the relief bills forward and in helping block amendments designed to water them down. But none of them played a greater role than state Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, who co-chaired an interim committee that staged a dozen meetings around the state to discuss the property tax and later recommended a package of relief bills, including the two that were passed.

She will be remembered fondly for quelling commotion during a hearing in her native Sandpoint by pulling off her blue pump shoe and hammering on a table to restore order. That intensity also won the day in Boise.

The Senate still is considering bills to shift half of school funding off the property tax and to increase the sales tax to partially offset the lost school funding. But it might be wiser to drop those ideas in the laps of the next interim committee.

Meanwhile, North Idahoans should take comfort that their representatives heard the voices they raised in protest at courthouses in Kootenai and Bonner counties, and those representatives made sure their colleagues heard them, too.