CHEYENNE - Although it was a rational concept to help elderly property owners stay in their homes, a deferred property tax program is very close to being a dud.

The Legislature left it up to the counties to adopt the property tax deferral program. Only two did so: Sheridan and Teton counties.

The lawmakers authorized the state treasurer to invest up to $2 million of the state's permanent mineral trust funds in deferred taxes.

The treasurer's office in its annual report for 2005 listed investments of $22,184 in the program in the two counties for 20 individual property owners.

Teton County in 2006 granted $3,507 in deferrals to four applicants. Sheridan County has funded one applicant for an unknown amount of deferred property taxes.

The program is for elderly or disabled low-income homeowners. It allows them to defer payment of up to half of their property taxes.

To qualify, the homeowner must be more than 65 years old or handicapped, have purchased the property 10 years earlier, and have an income at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level for a household of four with adjustments.

For Teton County, the income threshold for a four-person household is about $38,000, according to the Teton County assessor's Web site.

The deferred property taxes constitute a permanent priority lien on the property. The interest on the taxes is 4 percent, or the rate set by the state treasurer's office.

"I think we had one person apply in the 1980s or 1990s, and that's it. They're not using it any more," said Sheridan County Assessor Paul Fall.

He speculated that elderly homeowners may not want to burden their children with debt.

Some people also are reluctant to disclose their incomes.

The Sheridan County commissioners, he said, have talked about updating the rules.

"If our values keep going statewide like they have been, people might take a harder look at it," Fall said.

Sheridan County has had double-digit increases in property values every year for the past three years, he said.

Sublette County Assessor Janet Montgomery said Friday the county advertised the program years ago but no one was interested, so the county commissioners didn't adopt it.

"The people who need it the most are the elderly, and their property's free and clear, and they don't want to put a lien against their property," Montgomery said.

Wyoming has three other existing property tax relief programs:

* One program that also is underused is being modified by the Joint Interim Revenue Committee to expand the number of qualifying taxpayers.

The property tax relief program is based on household income and household assets. In 2006 a total of 604 homeowners received $144,925 in refunds, or an average of nearly $240 each.

* The tax refund to the elderly and disabled low-income people totaled $2.5 million for 4,046 applicants in 2006. Refunds total $100 to $800 for single people and $100 to $900 for married couples, depending on income and qualifications.

This program is not confined to homeowners. The refund is for sales and use taxes, utilities as well as property taxes.

* The veterans' exemption totals $3,000 on the assessed valuation of a veteran's home. In 2007, a total of $3.3 million was paid to 20,449 veterans, according to a Department of Revenue report.

* A fourth program, the homeowner tax credit, is moot because the Legislature hasn't put any money into it for more than 20 years.

Rep. Pete Anderson, R-Pine Bluffs, a co-chairman of the Joint Interim Revenue Committee, said the law needs to be updated or repealed.

"Nobody's pushed it. If you look at it, it didn't amount to much,"Anderson said.

The maximum credit was $105. Homes worth more than $61,579, which today includes most houses in the state, would receive no credit at all.

Anderson said he had a bill prepared that rewrote the tax credit law, but he won't present it. Instead, the committee will work on the expanded property tax relief bill.

Contact Joan Barron at joan.barron@trib.com or by phone at 307-632-1244.