CHEYENNE -- Nancy Weibe knows the sting of rising taxes.

Last year, the 75-year-old retired teacher was forced to borrow against her small home in Sublette County to pay the property taxes.

“I have friends who tell me to sell, but I don't want to sell. I love it here,” said Weibe, who saw her taxes jump from $70 when the she bought the place in 1978 to $1,500 last year.

Once a problem confined to a few choice areas of Wyoming, soaring property taxes are beginning to take a toll on property owners across the state.

The mineral boom, and resulting housing shortage, is one of the chief factors driving up property valuations and taxes.

Since 2000, property valuations have increased 114 percent in Sheridan County, 103 percent in Natrona County and 62 percent in Laramie County, according to Gov. Dave Freudenthal's office.

Property owners outside the boom areas aren't immune, either. Gentrification in some older neighborhoods, for example, is driving up property valuations, and tax rates along with them.

“That has happened a lot around the state,” said Sen. Jayne Mockler, D-Cheyenne. “There are people who have lived in their homes for years, and suddenly people move in around them and their property taxes shoot up.”

Even homeowners in small, isolated communities are seeing rates increase as a result of a statewide tax system that continues to press upward as a result of the churning economy. Those increases are driving calls for property tax relief from state lawmakers, who are looking at a number of proposals for the Legislature's upcoming budget session.

Poll shows concern

More than 60 percent of Wyoming voters in a recent Casper Star-Tribune poll said the issue of rising property taxes is either “very serious” (23 percent) or “somewhat serious” (40 percent).

The remaining 40 percent said the property tax issue is either “not too serious” (24 percent), “not serious” (11 percent) or “not sure” (2 percent).

Republicans and men were far more likely to see taxes as a serious issue than Democrats and women, the results showed.

The telephone poll, taken by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington, D.C., on Jan. 18-21, surveyed 625 registered Wyoming voters from across the state who said they regularly vote in Wyoming state elections. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Louis and Bud Decker, retirees living in booming Pinedale, have seen all of their major expenses increase as a result of natural gas development in the area. Property taxes are no exception.

The Deckers, 79 and 89, respectively, rely on Social Security to pay many of their bills, including some of the $125 a month in state property taxes.

“That's an enormous bite,” Louis Decker said. “$125 would buy a lot of groceries.”

Terry Tarbett, a physical therapy technician in Wapiti, worries that he may be forced to sell his beloved home in Park County because of rising property taxes.

Tarbett bought the home on five acres 25 years ago, long before wealthy out-of-state residents began buying up the adjoining land and building huge homes that drove up his taxes.

“This is the cabin I've worked my whole life to get,” Tarbett said. “I treasure every second I'm here.”

Not everyone benefits

Wyoming's surging natural resource extraction economy is a principal driver of property taxes, most officials agree.

Good-paying jobs in mines and gas fields allow workers to pay a premium for housing, which drives up costs.

But not everyone is benefiting from the boom. Retirees and those with jobs outside the minerals industry don't always make the same big salaries. Yet they are forced to compete for housing with those who are, and pay higher taxes once home prices in their neighborhoods get bid up by others.

Homeowners and the elderly aren't the only ones feeling the pinch. Landlords, forced to pay higher taxes, are passing on the cost to their tenants, who often are young people.

Ralph Wenz, a landlord in Pinedale, said he had no choice but to raise the rents on the two-bedroom house and duplex he owns to pay the taxes.

“It's the gas fields,” Wenz said. “That's the main reason the taxes have gone up."

“The single mom who was working a minimum-wage job is still making minimum wage, but now her rent has gone up because her landlord's property tax went up,” Mockler added.

Property taxes continue to be a problem in Teton County, where the median price for a home on five acres or less soared from $690,000 in 2006 to $873,000 in 2007.

The owner of a home valued at the median rate paid more than $4,900 in taxes last year, County Assessor Cathy Toolson said.

Even “affordable” housing sells for at least $200,000 in the Jackson area. Those prices hit the county's large senior and working-class populations hard.

“It's definitely becoming life-changing for some of these people,” Toolson said. “Not everyone is a millionaire, by any means.”

Ardis Rollefson moved to Jackson with her husband, a biologist with the state Game and Fish Department, in 1960 and bought a home the following year.

Rollefson, a retired English teacher, can be seen in the county assessor's office every year haggling with the county employees over her tax rate.

“I know there are many, many people who have left the valley because they can't afford to pay the taxes -- old-timers mostly,” Rollefson said.

Taxes high in Cody

Homeowners in Park County face a similar crunch.

The average sales price of a home in Park County jumped from $113,000 in 2000 to $190,000 last year.

One factor driving the increase is the large number of people who move to the Cody area each year to retire.

“They sell their place in California, and they can afford to buy a nice place here,” said Pat Meyer, deputy county assessor, adding that the area is losing young people whose jobs don't pay enough to cover the taxes associated with increased housing costs.

John Torbit, a part-time pharmacist in Cody, saw his property taxes jump 7 percent last year, to nearly $1,500. That's including a $211 state rebate in recognition of his military service.

Torbit, who lives on a fixed income, said it's not just the rate of the tax increases that hurts, it's the unpredictability.

Under the current system, he said, there is no way for homeowners to predict the size of their tax bills. That makes efficient budgeting impossible.

“I could live with a predictable rate of increase, similar to the 1.5 percent increase allowed in California law,” Torbit said. “It's predictable. You know what it's going to be five and 10 years down the road.”

Lawmakers seek solutions

Now that calls for property tax relief are coming from across the state, lawmakers are taking a closer look.

A number of tax relief bills could be considered during the Legislature's upcoming budget session. The boldest proposals don't seem to be gaining traction, however.

The Joint Interim Revenue Committee snubbed a proposed tax break for seniors who have lived in their homes for at least 10 years.

Lawmakers criticized the bill, which had the backing of Gov. Dave Freudenthal, largely because it provided a tax break for only one group of Wyoming citizens.

Freudenthal, in response, said he was “taken aback” by the lawmakers' negative reaction the bill, which would have required an amendment to the state constitution.

While the committee won't sponsor the bill, it will be carried during the session by individual lawmakers.

“Folks over 65 receive no meaningful property tax relief as a result of the committee's decision,” Freudenthal said in a written statement.

Lawmakers may also consider expanding existing tax breaks for veterans and low-income homeowners.

If it comes, tax relief will be welcomed by those who live in the most expensive parts of Wyoming. But increasingly, the relief would benefit ordinary property owners across the state.

Reach capital bureau reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at jared.miller@trib.com.