KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- You've heard it before. Now, you may soon be paying more on your KUB bill.

Thursday the utility's board approved a $876 million budget for 2009.

Passing on its first reading was a proposal to increase the wastewater rate by eight percent.

KUB says the rate increase has been in the plans for the last four years, as part of a project to upgrade wastewater systems.

Utility spokesperson Jennifer Fern says, "Each time that we have an increase that we considered earlier on, that comes up, we will be presenting that to the board. So, this is just one of those, you know we had two 50 percent rate increases earlier in the program, and this is just one smaller increase."

For the increase to go into effect, it will have to pass on a second reading at the boards meeting in June.

If it does, the average customer will pay about $3.40 cents more on their monthly bill, starting in October.