LEWISTON – Councilors inked the final work on their new budget and defended their storm water utility Tuesday night.

Councilors passed fee increases for the city’s water, sewer and storm water utilities and approved the $42.6 million in property tax collections at Tuesday’s meeting.

But people had more questions about the city’s storm water utility. Councilors voted to increase that fee, by $10 per year, to $40.

“I think the fee is a good idea, but I don’t understand why the increase is necessary,” said Charles Fournier, of 14 Wilson St.

Larry Poulin, of 394 Sabattus St., said it simply represents more city spending based on the people he’s talked to.

“I think people just don’t understand why the storm fee is necessary, and they can’t buy in,” he said. “They can’t tell if it’s a good idea or not if they don’t understand it.”

The council began levying the fee this year as a way to pay for storm water separation work. Federal guidelines require the city to remove pipes that combine sanitary sewer with storm water runoff. Lewiston has spent about $12.1 million on sewer overflow projects since 1997.

Bennett said the storm water fee lets the city pay for that work with money collected form nonprofit groups, as well as businesses and residents. Nonprofits, including Bates College and Lewiston’s hospitals, are not required to pay property taxes.

Plans call for building a cistern downtown over the next two years. Storm runoff from downtown storm drains would flow into the tanks during heavy storms. The water would be pumped back through the treatment plant once the storm had passed and the runoff had subsided.

The $4.37 million cistern project replaces a plan to dig up most downtown streets over the next several years to build a parallel drain system. That would have cost about $21 million.

Bennett said the $10 utility fee will help pay for that cistern.