JXN Water issued the following statement.
Kingfish note: JXN Water Manager Ted Henifin announced the rate hikes at a press conference today. He will submit the proposed rate hikes to Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and the City Council for approval. The stipulated order allows Mr. Henifin to raise the rates if the city declines to do so. The Water Receiver did not notify Jackson officials of the rate hikes before the press conference.
The new rates will be based on water usage. Mr. Henifin said an average family (2.5 people) uses 5,000 gallons per month. The new rate will be calculated per 100 cubic feet used. (4:30).
A family using 16.5 ccf of water for water and sewer services pays $90 per month (water, sewer, service fee). The new rates are estimated to increase the bill to $91. However, the same family will pay another $37 per month for garbage collection service.
JXN Water will create a new classification for customers who are SNAP recipients as 25% of Jackson's population is "economically disadvantaged." Their bill is estimated to fall from $67 to $46 per month. Mr. Henifin justified the new classification, stating it will allow those who were more likely to suffer financial hardships to pay into the water/sewer system. (7:20)
Some businesses should benefit under the new rate structure. A hair salon using 30 ccf of water (water and sewer) per month would see its bill fall from $180 to $130 per month. However, restaurants will pay substantially more money under Mr. Henifin's plan.
A restaurant using 190 ccf of water per month pays approximately $1,300 per month. The new rates will raise its monthly bill to $2,000. Mr. Henifin acknowledged restaurants have suffered from higher costs over the last few years. However, he said the restaurants are now getting reliable water service and suffer from a loss of business and purchasing bottled drinks because of water outages.
Other highlights of the press conference:
* 56% of customers paid their bills at the end of the the third quarter. Mr. Henifin said the collection rate increased to 68% in October. Cutoffs for non-payment will begin soon.
* The system carries debt of $260 million. It costs $2 million per month to service the debt.
* JXN Water has fixed 40 of 255 sanitary sewer overflows.
* The find and fix program has repaired over 500 leaks. Installing new pumps at the water plants sometimes creates more leaks said Mr. Henifin.
* A major leak was found at the end of East McDowell Road while investigating a sewer issue. He estimated the size of the flow to be 5 million gallons per day, nearly equivalent to the Colonial leak that drew so much publicity. The leak caused a major loss of pressure in South Jackson.
46 comments:
I would think one would first need to get everyone regularly paying their bill
before you jack up the rates
How are those cutoffs going that were supposed to start in September? Even big Ted ain’t got the balls…
Why the hell would the council do anything except vote "no" to the proposed rate increase? Let Ted take the fall.
Free the water, free the grits;
Free the sewer where we shits.
I used my last water bill to see the difference in the current $3.85 per ccf to the new $6.00 per ccf. Helped me see what my difference would be.
Two things are confusing to me.
1) No idea what size my meter is. Do you just call Jxn Water to find out? Would be nice if it could be printed on the bill under the "Important Information" section.
2) His announcement says "Rate (water and sewer combined)". Currently, there is a line item for water charges and a separate line item for sewer charges. Am I understanding that the new bill will only have 1 line item for both water and sewer?
That "Availability charge" (meter charge) is a hefty add to the bill.
One confusing thing:
1) I have a meter for the yard (sprinkler) and a meter for the house. My yard meter is zero because I haven't run the sprinkler in several years. But now I'll pay $40 or $60 a month (depending on size) whether I use it or not?
Per WLBT: "Earlier this year, Henifin proposed a rate structure based on property values. A bill was passed into law during the 2023 Legislative session to prohibit charges from being based on anything other than consumption after an outcry from residents."
How is the reduced rate for SNAP recipients not in violation of that law?
Seems reasonable to me - should result in lower bills for those with financial hardships and those would likely be the same group that is currently not paying their bills. Getting at least something from all customers is better than only getting full payment from half your customers. Especially when you consider those who haven't been paying for water haven't been paying for sewer or trash either.
Let's get this passed and start the shutoffs ASAP - there are more than enough avenues for those with financial hardships to seek assistance at this point. No more excuses to avoid shutoffs! Once those start, your delinquent accounts will miraculously find some motivation to get current.
Yuge Boom in Jackson SNAP applications in 3, 2, 1…
State Rep Shanda Yates successfully proposed and legislature passed state law that water be billed only on usage, not partly usage, partly welfare. Ted Henifin can raise rates but has to bend to state law such that all pay same rate based only on usage.
Ted's socialist system forces some water users to subsidize other water users, in flagrant violation of the word and spirit of applicable state law.
@4:05 PM. The reduced rate is for the meter charge, not the water charge. Everyone pays the same rate for the water.
@4:08 pm. I think I read that the shutoffs aren't starting until 2024 now.
I'd like an update on the missing 7,000 customers who get water but no bill.
Ain’t socialism great!!!
Whenever you read the term "paying your fair share", you can assume that working people are about to pay for something so the free-loaders can keep doing nothing. Ted is a socialist. And he will admit that to you. I've been in the room with him. It's the way he thinks. But he's doing a good job fixing things without having to deal with budgets and a money issue.
I am very thankful to live in an area with elected leaders that represent my interests.
I was sad to leave Jackson at the time, but I could see the newly officials no longer had any concern for basic conservative principles, and the majority of the voting residents wanted to be a welfare city...so it was not going to ever swing back to a sustainable model in my lifetime.
Who could have predicted that low intelligence voters electing people based largely on skin color (instead of merit) would end this way?
"A restaurant using 190 ccf of water per month pays approximately $1,300 per month. The new rates will raise its monthly bill to $2,000. Mr. Henifin acknowledged restaurants have suffered from higher costs over the last few years. However, he said the restaurants are now getting reliable water service and suffer from a loss of business and purchasing bottled drinks because of water outages".
I wonder if Mr. Jeff Good will publicly share his thoughts on said proposed rate increase for restaurants
As a former resident of Jackson, frankly Scarlett, I don't give a damn anymore.
😂 local restauranteurs will pay more for water than they pay their employees 🤣
I’ll believe in cutoffs when I see them. Talk means nothing. No cutoffs the past decade.
Ted says: Industry standard is 94-99% collection rate. Jackson was 68% in October. Hope to get to 95-99 in a few years!!! What a bunch of crap!
You can bet your ass that but for the legislation, the water costs would be shouldered by the producers, with the non producers paying nothing, just like they have the past decade or so.
You restaurant guys help me. 190 CCF/month is 4,737 gallons per day! Current bill 190 X (3.85 + 5.36) = $1,750/month. New bill (30 x $6) + (70 x $12) + (90 x$14) plus $320 (assuming 2” meter) = $2,700.
SNAP is a federal program right? So is he sure that classification will pass muster under the state bill? He would have been better off having a bracket from 0-5 ccf (3740 gallons) for like $0.10/ccf. But that might have helped another few thousand customers on social security but not SNAP. Might be more than socialism!
For those of you who are confused, for simplicity sake that is over a. 50% increase. This really should not bother the vast majority of Jackson residents because they are not paying anyway. I wish I was in the business around Jackson of selling “For Sale” signs.
Oh snap.
There won't be any shutoffs for not paying, because the ACLU, SPLC, and the Rukia Cartel would immediately obtain an injunction.
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." (Karl Marx Lumumba)
If he's 'authorized to raise the rates', why is he sending it to city hall for approval?
Threatening grifters with cutoffs is about as meaningless as threatening them with limb amputation. They know from experience, there will not be consequences for non-payment.
Just as Bennie is in place to 'protect' certain residents in District 2, Chockwe will not let anything happen to people of color in Jackson and if there's a threat of that, Sistah gonna march and strut and shine that butt.
Free the free water. Right?
If they keep this up, that house I want in Eastover will soon be affordable.
It aggravates me to no end to have to pay more than twice now what I paid two years ago because there are many capable households that aren't paying their share. It aggravates me more that over the last several decades, the city has not met their obligation to take the incoming funds and be proactive to save us from this.
When my emotions fade and my sense of logic kicks back into the now, what I realize is that Ted is successfully resurrecting a dead utility back into a state of reliability in record time and he's taking on a minimally funded disaster to boot. There are many efforts like these in today's decaying state of nationwide infrastructure that are met with failure. And he's doing it while ducking race cards being thrown at him like Shurikens.
I am a Fondren resident and I am one of the citizens that are having to dig deeper to support that effort. The fact is that Jackson has a populace of genuinely disadvantaged people in the financial sense. Our history explains why it exists and like it or not, the ones of us that are determined to stay here have a responsibility to accept it and support those people. Still, the individuals that I speak of are expiring and a new generation of capable ones need to ante up.
If I change my mind about that then it's my responsibility to leave. For now, the progress that I see around me is inspiring and I would like to see it continue. I'd wager that the ninety-ninth percentile commenting here are in no position to do so.
He's reaching out to the city counsel for support because he's also trying to get the city in tune to some form of receivership in the future once the system is largely back on it's feet. In the meantime, he has a mission and he's doing what he has to do. He also very clearly is putting his reputation on the line in the process.
Then again, I too am merely spewing my own opinion. BUT...
My water quality and pressure appear adequate. My trash gets picked up twice a week. I don't hear gunshots anymore at night. Every major street around my neighborhood has been paved, marked, new crosswalks, new streetlights that work and utility trucks are making repairs to infrastructure in full view on the regular as a travel through the city. I'm in South / West Jackson pretty regularly and I'm seeing the progress in those areas as well.
Troll response in 3....2....1
rant /off
Some of you seem to think you can get blood out of a turnip.
Some of these folks are unemployable. Some of you need a reality check and at least, admit you would not hire someone with mental health issues or severe learning disabilities or who is physically disabled for the job or who is elderly or who is in poor health or who has no transportation or has rotten or missing teeth or even bad breath ...a few examples. And, most of you wouldn't hire those who have convicted crimes but served their time. Some don't have and can't afford transportation so even if they " walk to work"...the unreliability issue due to weather or how grubby they get in the process would get them fired.
Some are the grandmothers taking care of their grandchildren because their parents are dead, dying, incarcerated, or deemed unfit. She barely has the funds to keep a roof over their heads. And, if you think each child gets sufficient funds, you aren't adding up how much your child costs.
So, you want the unemployable to just die of starvation or dehydration?
What I know for certain is that you don't travel. You never have seen "squatters' villages". You've not seen children begging in the streets or becoming thieves to survive. You've never seen children suffering from lack of food, water or medicine. You wanna make sure those children don't become productive members of society? You don't know the history of some of your beloved politicians and judges and how they grew up!And, I know for certain a famous evangelical preacher was dependent on his state for quite a while.
So, you want to call it socialism. I call it some minimal things a functioning society must provide to reduce the risks posed by an unhealthy population and shortage of workers.
I suspect some of you would like to restore slavery or at least have the " help" totally dependent on YOU to exist. You see yourself as essential to them but don't see their services as having much value to you.
You are the guys who think your wives have no monetary value if they don't work. You don't value her housekeeping/homemaking or laundry services or keeping you from having to leave work to wait on repair services or taking care of you when you are sick and being your personal shopper. You think feeding her and keeping her clothed and providing a roof over her head is enough. Mmmm...I actually put the numbers together for mine. I also gave him my job offer I had in writing. I also gave him the figure we'd have to pay for " my current services". He couldn't pay me enough what I could earn on my own or afford for me to quit even sharing child support and he'd have to share childcare.
Wake up! Yeah...you ain't woke to reality. You are the self made guy who never was helped by anyone...not a teacher, not your momma or daddy...you came out of the womb knowing it all and being able to do everything for yourself to get where you are today. BS
9:35, even if you get the house for free and you sign the papers, you will be immediately transferred to Whitfield.
The value of my Madison home just increased another 15%. Thank you Water Czar.
I can help y'all reduce your water bills. One call is all. 1-800-strt-pipe
@12:25
You had this one chance to shine and choose 1-800-STR8-PIPE but you fumbled.
@10:41 - Why did you bother to conclude your post at 10:41 and start all over at 10:54?
I'm glad you're no longer hearing gunshots and I'm sorry about your hearing loss.
So another 5 MGD leak!!! 2-3 more of those and he can shut Fewell off! But why did it take looking for a sewer leak to find a giant water leak near where the pressure was low??? They even provided water tankers to Henley Young! Someone dropped the ball or was not paying attention! Transparency not!
@12:53 PM - Well, it's all water under the bridge now.
Attn 2:19, You apparently are not the solution to the problem, YOUARE THEPROBLEM!..
I live in a very nice subdivision in Madison. Virtually everyone here either worked and/or retired from Jackson, or still work there. Nobody, and I mean Nobody ever mentions regrets from leaving one of if not the highest crime ridden cities in the USA. My property values have exploded. That water crisis is absolutely intolerable. Maybe when his honor the mayor returns from his latest paid vacation, we can learn more.
Free the cutoffs.
Why did you bother to conclude your post at 10:41 and start all over at 10:54?
Pomposity of the anonymous convinced we all eagerly have conceded to their ultimate superiority. Anonymous Jeff Good Thought Leader wannabe.
2:19 pm I'm 10:54, I don't live in Fondren. I live in Eastover and so no I don't hear gunshots.
I have friends in Fondren, they haven't heard gunshots either but then they live in very nice houses that are well insulated and usually in asleep by midnight.
We both understand I'm sure, that as you go west of State St from Fondren there are a lot of rundown dwellings. We are aware that the west side of I-55 is where the shots were fired on a vehicle that made its way to the east side. There may certainly have been those on Roxbury to Eastridge that might have heard them if they weren't inside.
I wonder if you even live in Jackson. I know some of the Jacksonians closer to County Line Rd buy into hysterics' rumors about events, but honestly, our worst problem is you and our legislature and governor playing politics and forgetting apparently that there are still well to do Republicans living in Jackson...they live in Fondren as well. We really don't appreciate your wild assumptions and embellishments and exaggerations.
It is NOT is your interest or anyone else's to bash our Capitol and reduce the value of the tax base here or drive away the most convenient places to shop as ours don't require as much driving from one to the next. Mississippi doesn't have the billions needed to move a Capitol or 3 major hospitals. Do try to live in the real world.
HaHa! ...with you 2:19. The rest of us immediately saw that following post as being the same person. Laughed further at the quick flailing, shallow snark response when she came back at 6:08 & 9:44. Her verbose postings are not convincing but are entertaining.
Exactly, 11:39. And she comes back at 9:44 to assure us that the measure of a safe city is whether or not you actually hear gunshots. If you don't, you're safe. If you do, you need to move to Fondren.
FBI statistics rank Jackson as the city highest in the US, per capita, in homicides. But, on the other hand, a recent imaginary poll reveals that only 44% of city residents hear gunshots more than twice per week.
FBI stats be damned! If I'm in real estate, I'm using that poll number.
What audacity. The city is telling business owners they should be happy to pay $700 more per month for water because they won't have to buy bottled water any more. Restaurant owners have said those periods of having to provide their own water ate up the profits, but now the city is going after those profits permanently.
Jackson 2024 rates 2.5 to three times old rate!
We were billed for January and February and the higher per gallon rate was charged for the total of 2 months. A $630 water bill ($315/mo)for 2 old people on SS is too much! Water sewer and trash should not cost more than electricity, gas, and phone combined.
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