Property tax increases -- in some cases more than doubling -- are causing an outcry in Homer. City officials say property valuations that hadn't been updated for years are the cause, reports the Homer Tribune.

While a few landowners say their assessment went down, others are so sticker-shocked that they are also asking "How can this be true?" One taxpayer who owns a downtown parcel calculates her property taxes rose 226 percent. Another has unimproved land, without a road or water and sewer, that rose from a valuation of $30,000 to $120,000.

Bay Realty owner Debra Leisek said what's needed is a legislative solution. Alaska is one of the only states in the union that doesn't bar governments from tripling or quadrupling property taxes from one year to the next.

Read more at the Homer Tribune: Tax bills rise out of sight, anger residents