American Fork officials are considering a 50 percent -- or higher -- property tax increase to hire more police officers, increase city employees' salaries, fix roads and more.

The increase would put the city's tax rate as the highest in the county, said City Councilman Dale Gunther.

"A 50 percent increase would be slightly higher than the highest in the county," Gunther said.

The tax increase would add about $112 to the tax bill on a $180,000 home.

The City Council has been preparing its tentative budget, which it will consider at its Tuesday meeting, and members have identified what they consider needs that would be funded by the increase.

Mayor Heber Thompson said the city needs the funds.

"We have, for a long time, neglected the maintenance and upkeep of the city and postponed a lot of things, including employee salaries and hiring needed personnel for the city," he said. "We have put that stuff off until it has affected the conditions of our roads, sidewalks and the ability of our police to function properly.

"We are bringing our employee levels, including salary, into more competitive levels. They are still not totally competitive."

Thompson said he expected taxpayers would accept the increase if they are educated about the issues.

"We feel the public will support this, because it has been so long since we have had a tax increase," Thompson said. The council plans a public hearing before the budget is officially adopted. No date has yet been set.

He expressed concern about those on fixed incomes.

"We are sensitive this is going to impact people, but we don't see any other solution to get us where we need to be," Thompson said.

The city staff have been researching to determine when taxes were increased last. Budget officer Cathy Jensen said she thought it was in the early 1990s because a history of the certified tax rate shows an increase then.

Thompson said the increase would be for essential services, not for frills.

"We feel that it is in order to maintain the minimum level of acceptable city services," he said. "We are not looking at extravagances. This is very minimal. Hopefully this prevents us from falling behind more."

Gunther agreed.

"The rate the city has charged hasn't kept up," he said.

Thompson said he hopes the increase would bolster the morale in the police department, which saw a 30 percent turnover of officers last year.

The police department is hiring four new officers and bringing the salaries of some existing police personnel up to a competitive wage. Additional increases for the rest of the department are tentatively scheduled for next year.

City Council members also have suggested increasing the amount of money in the sidewalk replacement fund from $10,000 to $110,000. Those funds are available to residents with a 50-50 match if they want to have sidewalks replaced or installed.

The money also would be used to do major repairs. And the increase would pay for a person in the public works department to do mapping.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.