The financial woes at JXN Water continue to multiply. WLBT reported last week:
Interim Third-Party Manager Ted Henifin is sounding the alarm on JXN Water’s finances, weeks after his efforts to raise revenue through a rate increase were put on hold by a federal judge. In an exclusive interview with 3 On Your Side, Henifin says several major contractors have not been paid in months. Meanwhile, he isn’t bringing in enough revenue to cover the city’s bond debt payment due in December, meaning Jackson could be in danger of default. “I’ve got about $30 million [in invoices] I have not paid to Jacobs, Wicker Construction, Veolia... Sustainability Partners... and then Stantec Consulting... I’ve got them all still working on a handshake... I don’t think I can keep them working much longer,” he said. “This house of cards is going to tumble and crumble.”... In the spring, Henifin proposed a rate increase to help offset the exhaustion of federal funds. However, the proposal was voted down by the Jackson City Council and has been put on hold by U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate. Henifin says JXN Water likely will not be able to make a more than $5 million December bond payment as a result.... So why is JXN Water responsible for paying off Jackson’s debt? As part of the original stipulated order taking over the water system, Henifin was only expected to be over the water treatment plants, transmission lines, and other infrastructure. However, the City Council asked the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice to amend the order to allow the ITPM to take on the billing system as well. Henifin also agreed to take on the city’s bond debt. At the time, that debt included almost $150 million in outstanding principal and interest, including what was left of the city’s $89.9 million Siemens bond. Henifin had hoped to use a portion of a $600 million federal allocation to pay off that debt but the legislation authorizing the funding would not allow it. As a result, JXN Water must make millions of dollars in annual bond payments.... A copy of Jackson’s 2018-2019 bond catalog shows that those payments included $9.2 million in debt service in September, and $5 million in debt service on December 1. Henifin was able to make the September payment but had to delay paying contractors as a result. “I approached them back in the spring, and said, ‘You know, we need to make a bond payment on September 1, and the only way we’re going to be able to make it is if I can delay paying you until I get some capital later in the year,” he said.... Henifin said that had the rate increase gone into effect in June, he would have brought in an additional $4 million that could have gone to debt service and contractor payments. He also requested permission from Wingate to set up a water authority, which would have allowed him to issue new debt that he says could have gone to operational costs. Wingate, so far, has blocked the rate increase, saying back in July that he still had questions about how Jackson used nearly $60 million in Siemens settlement funds... Rest of article.
The bondholder, Assured Guaranty, recently met privately with Judge Wingate. The Court has also held private meetings with Mayor Horhn. JXN Water was excluded from the meetings.
61 comments:
just give it all back to the black supremacists since they want it so badly and let them figure it out for themselves and pay for it themselves. I am beyond fatigued.
Note to my broker: buy stock in bottled water and porta-potties.
Want to see an implosion of a major city? Eliminate their ability to issue bonds by defaulting on a bond payment.
Wingate has Water Czar Henifin painted into a corner. Default in 3, 2, 1...
You can’t help people that can’t do enough basic math to understand that a rate increase is mathematically required to make the system sustainable. The system will fail, they will blame the white man for not saving them, and they will keep sitting on their ash heap begging for welfare from someone else while demanding that they be “in charge” of whatever ruins are left.
Please don’t run off Ted. He’s the only reason we still have water
National Guard arriving with water trucks in 3, 2, 1...
9:32, bankruptcy sounds like the only solution. And in that case, the current bondholders get a haircut. After bankruptcy is filed and debts are restructured, it is actually easier to sell new bonds. I'm not sure why Heflin hasn't pursued that already.
I expect that all the people who want free water pay their phone bill every month on time.
KF why exclude Jxn Water
The house of cards falling will be on Wingate's head.
Dec. payment will be made. It will come
from the city general sale tax. It will go
to the dept of revenue to the bond trustee.
Mr. Henifin told the judge about this
months ago. He didn't listen. The mayor is against the raise. It was only
$9.00
He can't file for bankruptcy.
Give the debt back to the city.
We probably pay for that too.
This is on Judge Wingate.
This seems like it would be a good use of whatever Siemens money is left. Maybe that's where Judge Wingate has been going with this.
I don't know what people pay in Jackson. I live alone in the PRVWSD service area, and my monthly water bill is about $44, with garbage billed separately for $25 a month. So that's $70 a month for a single-person household, for utilities that don't have disastrous history and debt that Jackson has.
Seems like Horhn and the bleeding hearts on the City Council want to ru(i)n JxnWater themselves. Let them have it. They will destroy it and show themselves to be no better than the previous administration.
Use $600mm to pay off $150mm of debt. Get forgiveness later. Put the city on track to at least be able to meet its obligations.
Doesn't the city, itself, have an unpaid $6 million bill from JXN Water?
Please hold off long enough so I can sell my house in Jackson!
I am on Bear Creek Water. My water bill is $13.02/month.
He can't use the money to pay debt.
Mr Henifin tried to tell the judge.
He needed that rate increase.
JXN Water withholds sanitation fees in response to city’s $6.4M water bill.
https://www.wlbt.com/2025/09/12/jxn-water-withholds-sanitation-fees-response-citys-64m-water-bill-official-says/
If the city paid it would cover Dec
Gee- and i thought everything was running so SMOOTHLY.
PERS should by these bonds. Economic realities don't exist there so why can't they hold these and then nobody would care if there was default. It's already unfunded, whats a few more unfunded %'s in the whole ponzi scheme....
Judge Wingate created this no raise.
Ted has spent $150M from the feds and also any and all revenue he has collected. He has more than doubled the budget for the enterprise fund but is still collecting only 70%! He needs $10-12M per month and probably collecting $7-8M. Getting the past dues from the apartments and the City would help for a month or two but what happens after that?
If not too late, he has got to cut O&M costs!!!
This is a textbook example of how throwing money at a problem is not always the solution. The water problems in Jackson have been going on a long time, time enough for some real solutions, and there have been multiple infusions of money from various sources...in spite of the incompetent billing system. Each and every time, the time is wasted and the money spent until Jackson is right back where it started.
Is JSU receiving a bill for water? More importantly, is JSU paying the bill for water?
We're not right back where we started.
He has looked at O&M costs.
The city didn't know the O&M costs.
@10:31 you say Bear Creek Water is only $13.02 monthly. I assume that is water only (no sewer or garbage pickup). I also assume that is not a large amount of usage. That sounds like just a few thousand gallons.
The raise is needed, but the real problem is the 30,000 households who don't pay and haven't paid in decades because the City then and JXN Water now will not cut off their service.
It’s time for Ted to go. Now he doesn’t want Jackson to be able to pay its trash collection bills to protect his operation. It’s a shell game, and the only thing that changed was federal money coming in. Look at the number of City staffers he retained.
City owes $6.4 million water bill.
There's not 30,000
City staffers help him work.
Bear Creek fees. https://www.bcwaterms.org/rates-fees
Meanwhile, perhaps by design, you're overlooking the breaking news up at the Canton water bidness.
Why isn’t JXN Water going after people and businesses that aren’t paying?
Take a look at all the bottled jugs of distilled water sold at Wal-Mart stores. These are bought for various purposes, chief among them being for thousands of CPAP machines. Reading the label you will see that they are products of the Jackson water system and distributed out of the Wal Mart Brookhaven warehouse.
12:45 it's for city water bill they owe.
You cannot fix something that is not fixable, too much debt.
Jackson wants control back. It is time to give it to them and see if they can collect better.
1:22 sending out 1000 letters week
Really? So what do you think happens if Henifin is correct adn the house of cards does tumble? That is, vendors going unpaid and quitting their work to keep the system going?
Why isn’t the city paying?
@1:34 PM: In case you missed it, a landscape architect and failed sewer administrator have been on JXN Water staff since day one… Can’t see how that was good hiring from CoJ.
For the perpetual and intentional water bill dead beats (30% of Jxn users?), please connect electricity to water pipes. Shock them into being adults.
Give them the rate increase and no grace cut off those that are behind. This has been going on long enough and $20 more on the water bill will be cheaper than no water. All the towns need to go up a couple of dollars just to fund repairs and parts.
Why is JXN Water advertising? That doesn't come cheap!
Jxn governance, except for Ashby Foote, wants Marxist collection of water bills, wherein Blacks in W. Jxn rely on Whites in NE Jxn to pay their water bills, "Free the water". Hennifin prefers a form of White subsidy of Black water users. I'd rather keep drinking bottled spring water than pay for Free water in W. Jxn. "Free the Water Bill payers!"
H
My belief & i can't believe i'm typing this is the new Mayors staff is very competent & once again i believe they can hire the right people to do the job this is Ted's only cash cow for now & it seems to have a media partner that he run ads on their station & it's nothing wrong with that,but if we did an Audit on where all the money Ted been throwing around will it come back clean? just think about it he has become a little arrogant Biden is no longer in office so this is his Job i don't care if the person is White ,Black or Asian you have a competent team & hire the right people Horne can make it happen if i'm wrong i will come back & eat my words Ted can leave we will be fine. #SAUSAGE
Judge should have listened to Ted.
They should take a card out of Canton Municipal Utilities book. They said they were raising rates 25% but then snuck in 125% and up increases. They’re also making up your usage as they go. My bill tripled to over $400 this month. Public Service goes right along with it.
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