The Renton City Council has taken a critical step to protect basic utility services in Renton, approving rate increases to help ensure toilets don’t back up, drinking water flows and runoff doesn’t fill the basement.

Those who want government to stick to the basics should cheer that action.

But there is room for criticism, even from some City Council members who asked probing questions. The city simply waited too long to raise these utility rates, allowing its aging infrastructure to continue deteriorating. City officials admit so much. But it’s the heritage of political decisions made years ago.

A better approach is to raise rates gradually, avoiding major spikes that can take a political toll or hit the pocketbook hard all at once.

But there’s a reason – a good one – why Renton leaders chose to put the city’s tax dollars elsewhere. The city was busy building new sewer and water lines and new ways to store water, all to accommodate new growth and promote economic development and to ensure there’s plenty of water to fight a major fire.

The rates are also a key part of the two-year budget proposal unveiled this week by Mayor Denis Law. Law’s message is clear: The recession has forced a return to basics. That’s smart stewardship.

So how much more will that mythical “average” household pay in Renton? The rate hikes amount to about 24 percent over two years. For some that percentage is scary figure. But it’s only one figure necessary to put the rate hikes into the proper context. The real question is: 24 percent of what? That’s best answered by a dollar figure.

That 24 percent – 17 percent in 2011 and 7 percent the next year – is $21.84 a month. It feels like a lot, but it’s necessary to protect some critical public infrastructure through repairs and upgrades.

Look at that this way. That $21.84 is pretty close to what every man, woman and child in the nation spends a year on Halloween.