Washington’s stormwater fee for commercial customers would increase by 15 percent in the upcoming fiscal year under a proposal presented to the City Council during one of its budget sessions last week.

In City Manager Bobby Roberson’s proposed budget, given to the council April 11, that spending plan called for the stormwater fees to increase by 50 cents monthly for each residential customer, with commercial customers seeing their monthly charges increase by 50 percent. The increases in the stormwater fees would be used to pay for more drainage improvements in the city.

The council looked at increasing the residential fee to $1 a month, but reached consensus to raise the monthly fee to 50 cents. That would result in a residential customer pay $6 more a year.

Under the proposal to increase stormwater fees for commercial customers by 15 percent, the average medium-size customer (using from 750 cubic feet of water to 1,274 cubic feet a month) would pay $8.10 more a month. Under the proposal to increase the commercial fees by 50 percent, those customers would have paid $27 more a month, according to city documents.

Roberson’s proposed, overall $75 million budget calls for a half-percent increase in water rates and a 2-percent increase in sewer rates for the upcoming fiscal year. The increases are needed to provide for the operation and maintenance of those services, according to Roberson. The average medium-size residential water customer (using from 750 cubic feet of water to 1,274 cubic feet a month) would pay 18 cents more a month under the proposed budget, with the average medium-size residential sewer customer paying 84 cents more a month.

The proposed overall budget calls for increasing the property-tax rate from 50 cents per $100 valuation to 52 cents, which would increase the annual tax on a house valued at $100,000 from $500 to $520.

The public hearing on the proposed budget is scheduled for 6 p.m. May 9, with the council expected to adopt the 2016-2017 budget and set tax rates May 23. Until adopted, the budget is subject to change by the council.