People in a southwestern Mississippi city will be paying higher bills for water and sewer service.

The McComb Board of Selectmen voted 4-2 Tuesday to increase the base rate for water and sewer by $12.41 a month, the Enterprise-Journal reported. That is about a 16.6% increase.

Effective Friday, the city’s new minimum bill is $86.88.

City Administrator David Myers proposed the increase as a solution to the water and sewer fund’s losses, which caused the city to struggle to repay loans from the state.

Myers said in a previous meeting that the city should have gradually raised its water rates to this level over a few years, but that never happened.

McComb officials had to approve a $1.5 million injection into the water and sewer fund from the general fund over the summer to keep up with loan repayments.

McComb has about 13,000 residents, and about 48% live in poverty, according to the Census Bureau.