Free free to share this post with the media.
Note: This May 2021 post seemed appropriate for a Flashback Friday publication. The media is running wild with the narrative that white flight - and later black flight - destroyed Jackson's finances. Jackson's annual audits show such is not the case but hey, since when did the media care about getting the facts right? Throw in the fact that most reporters don't know how to read income statements or balance sheets and presto, you wind up with a distorted narrative.
Jackson's coffers are almost empty thanks to white flight taking its money to the suburbs. Such is the excuse national and local media make in explaining way Jackson's water problems. However, such a blame game ignores reality. Jackson gets more money than ever but managed to mismanage its water/sewer department into virtual bankruptcy.
If Jackson would just collect the money owed for water/sewer services, it would have enough money to maintain the water system. The accounts receivables lines on the city's annual audits spell out the problem in black and white.
Accounts receivables are money owed but not collected. Jackson's receivables stayed below $10 million for several years then crept up to the $20 million range where it stayed until 2013. Unfortunately, all hell broke loose on the balance sheet in 2014 as accounts receivables doubled in only five years. Cutting off water cut-offs might have been great politics but it was a disaster on the books as the water system went broke. The cash on hand account shows the carnage.
Water/sewer rate increases usually generated large hikes in cash as shown on the chart. However, as accounts receivables skyrocketed, the water/sewer system's cash on hand plummeted to zero. Jackson literally spent every dime it had to prop up the water sewer system because it didn't collect payments.
Jackson can't even claim declining water sewer revenues are at fault because although the number of connections have decreased, water sales increased from $42 million in 2003 to $50 million in 2019.
The city should be getting more money than ever from its water/sewer services as shown by this chart. However, the failure to collect payments while spending every dime available presents a picture that is quite ugly.
The 2019 item is correct. The Jackson water/sewer system generated an operating loss of $17 million in 2019. The system was a money-maker for the city of Jackson right up until 2014 when the wheels fell off the system.
The depreciation expense was equivalent to the operating loss. The cash flow presented a somewhat better picture.
Jackson's overall budget does not show a city hemorrhaging cash. Jackson gets more revenue than ever before. The property taxes alone are nearly $20 million more than in 2002.
The sales tax revenue remained fairly flat since 2002. Jackson's sales tax revenue was $36 million in 2002. It bell between $32 million and $37 million although it was $40 million in 2006 and $45 million in 2007 but those two years were outliers. The city enjoyed a slight bump in sales taxes in 2017 thanks to the new internet sales tax diversions. The 2019 revenue was $54 million if one counts sales tax ($14 million) and other ($40 million).
What does it all mean? It means Jackson's total revenue from government activities is an unprecedented $242 million in 2019.
Kingfish note: Compare the charts to some statements made by the media about Jackson's water crisis.
Vice News
"Jackson’s water system has been on the decline for decades. The city relies on two aging WT facilities, one of which is over 100 years old and has limited funds for replacement. Jackson is scraping by on a $300 million budget. "
The tax coffers in Mississippi’s blackest city have dwindled along with its white population over the past 30 years.
Donna Ladd (NBC Column)
Make no mistake, the fact that low-income Jacksonians are living amid the stench of toilets that won’t flush is a direct legacy of white-supremacist thinking at the state level, not the failure of a few bill collectors in the city to collect on enough delinquent customers.
Politico
But Jackson’s tax base has been declining for years.
Anna Wolfe (Mississippi Today)
Two generations of white and wealth flight out of Jackson has reduced the built-in revenue that officials say the water system needs just to maintain full operations, including hiring personnel — let alone to make a dent in an estimated $1 billion worth of needed upgrades.
New York Times
In Jackson, boil-water notices are common and an enduring municipal drama has played out for decades, as white flight, an eroding tax base and poor management have left the remaining residents with old and broken pipes, but without the public funding to fix them.
The city has had a dwindling tax base for decades, after the integration of schools and other public spaces in Jackson triggered a dramatic flight of white residents. In many cases, they took their wealth and tax dollars with them.
Notice a disconnect?
Raw Data
Accounts Receivable
2003: $6 million
2004: $8 million
2005: $6 million
2006: $7 million
2007: $7 million
2008: $13 million
2009: $15 million
2010: $18 million
2011: $20 million
2012: $24 million
2013: $25 million
2014: $40 million
2015: $41 million
2016: $50 million
2017: $44 million
2018: $56 million
2019: $49 million
Water/Sewer Cash on Hand
2003: $25 million
2004: $5 million
2005: $8 million
2006: $11 million
2007: $27 million
2008: $9 million
2009: $18 million
2010: $12 million
2011: $9 million
2012: $13 million
2013: $4 million
2014: $13 million
2015: $7 million
2016: $5 million
2017: $0.2 million ($182,000)
2018: 0
2019: 0
Water Sales
2003: $42 million
2004: $40 million
2005: $39 million
2006: $45 million
2007: $43 million
2008: $47 million
2009: $41 million
2010: $42 million
2011: $47 million
2012: $47 million
2013: $44 million
2014: $69 million
2015: $59 million
2016: $63 million
2017: $61 million
2018: $57 million
2019: $50 million
Operating Income (Loss)
2003: $7 million
2004: $9 million
2005: $10 million
2006: $13 million
2007: $13 million
2008: $9 million
2009: $5 million
2010: $8 million
2011: $11 million
2012: $6 million
2013: ($0.9 million)
2014: $22 million
2015: $19 million
2016: $37 million
2017: $6 million
2018: ($80,000)
2019: ($17 million)
Jackson Total Revenue
2002: $213 million
2003: $178 million
2004: Use midpoint between 03 and 05
2005: $202 million
2006: $217 million
2007: $213 million
2008: $219 million
2009: $205 million
2010: $199 million
2011: $203 million
2012: $210 million
2013: $215 million
2014: $235 million
2015: $222 million
2016: $225 million
2017: $238 million
2018: $241 million
2019: $242 million
Property Tax Revenue
2002: $59 million
2003: $64 million
2004: $60 million
2005: $59 million
2006: $62 million
2007: $65 million
2008: $66 million
2009: $71 million
2010: $68 million
2011: $68 million
2012: $75 million
2013: $72 million
2014: $78 million
2015: $77 million
2016: $69 million
2017: $76 million
2018: $78 million
2019: $78 million
Sales Tax Revenue
2002: $36 million
2003: $35 million
2004: $36 million
2005: $36 million
2006: $40 million
2007: $45 million
2008: $37 million
2009: $33 million
2010: $32 million
2011: $32 million
2012: $33 million
2013: $32 million
2014: $33 million
2015: $32 million
2016: $36 million
2017: $14 million* Add 39 million
2018: $14 million* Add $40 million
2019: $14 million* Add $40 million
30 comments:
Free the Water Bills
### Metro Ad Valorem Millage Rates (2021-2022) ###
Jackson = 74.03 mils (Belhaven You.Are.Screwed CID FY22/23 rate)
Jackson = 69.03 mils (Existing Belhaven Cameras-Prevent-Crime CID rate)
Jackson = 68.03 mils (Lumumba Proposed FY22/23 rate)
Jackson = 63.03 mils
Canton = 56.32 mils
Edwards = 47.0 mils
Clinton = 41.49 mils
Bolton = 36.3 mils
Flora = 34.5 mils
Byram = 34.1 mils
Brandon = 33.0 mils
---> Current AVERAGE = 32.94 mils <---
Raymond = 30.72 mils
Madison = 28.8 mils
Florence = 28.4 mils
Terry = 27.85 mils
Pearl = 27.5 mils
Ridgeland = 20.03 mils
Flowood = 20.0 mils
Richland = 19.0 mils
Gluckstadt = 12.0 mils
* excludes County & School District
The tax base is leaving Jackson they say. Even if true, that doesn't affect water and sewer. Water and sewer shouldn't be run from the tax base. They should be operated solely from the water/sewer rate base.
Donna Ladd is a cartoon of herself. She needs a fat cigar and a Cuban guerilla uniform to match her poisonous stretchers.
How about a special coverage folder with all your work so we can share on Twitter?
Imagine if we didn’t have KF. Who else would be telling the real story of what has happened? Remember this when someone says the media is impartial
If you lay blame to others for your failures, who should receive credit for accomplishments when the “others” come to your rescue? Response… depends on if you’re a Democrat or Republican
@2:25
There’s the “media” and then there’s the (((media)))
Anna Wolfe is a member of the (((media)))
Yell at clouds all you want KF.
JJ is just an echo chamber.
Your voice will not be heard outside of your hugbox.
It will not be amplified.
You get it though.
You suppress the truth all the time with censorship.
"Two generations of white and wealth flight out of Jackson has reduced the built-in revenue that officials say the water system needs just to maintain full operations, "
Are there any numbers available on how many blacks have left Jackson in the last couple of decades ? I have two black families, who could well afford to leave, that live within a couple of houses of me in Madison. Great people I'm proud to have as neighbors other than the fact that everyone who left Jackson in the last twenty years is obviously a racist. LOL
3:25 I assume you found something incorrect in something KF posted in that outpouring of data he posted.
Please elucidate specifically what he got wrong, if you can.
Third Chart - Water and Sewer Sales: Assuming $69M flat going forward from 2014 results in lost revenue through 2019 of $55M. Assuming 2020-2022 same as 2019, lost revenue is now $112M. Thanks Siemens!!! And thank the last 2 administrations for not getting the billing system working!!!
They sold their soul to keep businesses in Jackson, no taxes if you stay here. That was eight or so years ago on a big tax customer... How many of these deals did they cut?
Go drive down State Street on the south side. It is empty.
This is about no one wanting to work in a city that does nothing for roads, for water, for safety, for maintaining property values... ETC!
My hopes are the state and federal engagement will highlight some goings on and maybe Ladd will have herself another Melton. She is fickle enough to flip flop.
DC engaged.
@4:50
You sure it’s Siemens? And not the subcontractors they were required to use?
Attn 4:37PM for those of us less “educated” than you, please define “elucidate” for the proletariat listeners on the blog.
@5:43
In 2022 we have this fancy gadgets called iPhones that can look things up. When I see a word I don’t know like elucidate, I tap the word and select “look up” from the pop up. Works on peoples names too.
Leftist Democrats masterfully suck dumb assed Republicans into this beyond ignorant debate – every time! It’s like a broken record and Republicans keep taking the bait.
It’s the CRIME STUPID!!!!!!!!!
That’s why the flight occurred. It’s an indisputable fact! And the crime was purposeful because that’s how leftist Democrats get control - and keep control of cities - regardless of their continuous disastrous failures.
Why does the same failed leftist Democrat party get elected over and over and over to run these cities into the ground – year after year – decade after decade? Because via crime, they ran the people off that are smart enough to vote their incompetent asses out of office!
Damned! All this student loan debt and seems nobody can even do simple math anymore.
And that’s he hits just keep on coming. WLBT just released new report on city’s negligence. Antar can run but he can’t hide.
Why is Lumumba now unavailable to the press until early next week? HHHmmmmmmmmmm.
Attn 6:42. Apparently the mayor is running and hiding. Did the generals, Rommel, Eisenhower, Patton, etc. run during crises in World War 11, no, they faced the problems at the risk of their lives. Where is the Mayor during the only real crisis which has occurred during his term of office? Re-elect him and see how few “taxpayers” ( outside of Belhaven ) prefer paying additional taxes for those who dont .
I owned some rental property in Jackson in the early 1980s.. I sold the property. the purchaser later went bankrupt. I had a friend who worked in the Hinds county court System. She called me and said it had gone through bankruptcy and if I would fill out some paperwork, I would get some money back. I said, no thanks, I learned my lesson.
Once again it’s Friday night and Thursday’s trash is still on the curb. Hope the Mayor is enjoying Miami. Cuba has better leadership…
Attn 6:42 PM, He can hide if he takes that fake beard and wig off,
Life is hard, it’s even harder when you’re stupid.
I’m going to have to veto this article. I demand it be removed. This is a perception of funding issues, right?
I wonder if the accounts receivable erroneously includes the overbilling due to the Siemens debacle.
Would love to dig into the sources of these financials if available for further review
Does Anna Wolfe realize that making blatantly false statements about Jackson’s water situation calls into question her reporting on the DHS/TANF/Bryant/New stories. I feel she’s done the hard work on the scandal and then posts a Donna Ladd style comment on water, which means it’s just her left wing opinion and has no basis in fact.
I appreciate KF including Anna Wolfe in this cast of clowns.
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