JXN Water desperately needs a rate increase but a federal judge questioned its ability to raise collection rates to where they could sustain Jackson's water/sewer system.
JXN Water Manager Ted Henifin proposed raising water/sewer rates in April but Judge Wingate denied permission to do so. Mr. Henifin said he was going to rase rates in December on Halloween Day. Judge Wingate immediately scheduled an emergency hearing for November 5.
The hearing began promptly at 9 Wednesday morning. After spending half the day on fire hydrants and sewage eruptions, Judge Wingate finally moved on to the matter at hand - JXN Water's proposed rate increase.
The JXN Water manager explained the water/sewer system needs $115 million per year to operate. JXN Water must also make bond payments of $20 million per year as well.
Mr. Henifin said a rate increase place the system on sounder financial footing. If no rate increase takes place, JXN Water will face deficits of $34 million in 2025 and $44 million in 2026. Deficits will remain over $27 million through 2029.
JXN Water does enjoy a congressional appropriation of $850 million. However, the funds can only be spent on capital projects, not operation expenses or debt. An amendment that will re-direct $54 million towards operations is stalled in the Senate due to the government shutdown.
Mr. Henifin said if he can get the rate increase and the re-directed funds, he can substantially cut the deficit as collection rates rise. The Receiver also said there will be inflationary rate increases over the next three years, a standard practice in the industry.
It is possible JXN Water might be able to reduce expenses. Mr. Henifin said terminating the leases for the twelve pumps at the Savannah Street treatment plant will save $1.2 million per year. Closing Fewell will save $10 million per year.
Judge Wingate asked his Receiver about the failing feature of the water/sewer system, collection rates. Mr. Henifin said collection rates stand at 71%. His status report projects the collection rates to be 75% in 2025, 80% in 2026, 90% in 2027, and 95% in 2028.
The judge was voiced his skepticism: "Why the optimism to go up to 95% when across the country, 95% would be tremendous." "Actually, 95% is the low end around the country. The 71% collection rate is the highest it's been in several years. We are showing significant increases in the last few months. We started doing massive turnoffs in the middle of September. Revenue and accounts are rising faster since then. Another 5% per year won't be that challenging," concluded the Receiver.
Judge Wingate continued to question Mr. Henifin's projections, claiming "95% is very high in the industry." "I don't agree with that. Larger utilities are closer to 99% on an annual basis," replied the Receiver.
Judge Wingate brought up the elephant in the room: "But Jackson has a culture of not paying and that is what you are struggling with."
Mr. Henifin quickly agreed, "It developed over the last ten years when there were no consequences for not paying your water bill." "The collection percentages are vital to the revenue estimate. If you don't reach 90 or 95%, then total revenue is wishful thinking," said the judge. "Yes, your honor," replied the manager.
The Court pointed out it took two years just to get to 70%. Mr. Henifin said he didn't focus on collection efforts until this year because they were fine the system during the first two years. It was hard to fix the water system, sewer system, and billing system concurrently.
After beating the subject of collection rates to death, Judge Wingate brought up JXN Water's debt. Mr. Henifin said Jackson borrowed $228 million in bonds for the water/sewer system but the current balance is $150 million. The two bond issues mature in 2034 and 2040.
The Receiver confessed JXN Water would not be able to make the $5 million bond payment to Assured Guaranty in December. However, the city of Jackson made the payment several weeks ago.
Judge Wingate said he met with Assured Guaranty in August. The bond insurer informed the Court in a private meeting it did not agree with JXN Water's revenue and collection rate projections.
However, Mr. Henifin said the Mississippi Code has something to say about rate increases. Section 21-27-7 (1)(b) states:
From time to time the governing authorities shall adjust such rates, to the end that the revenues therefrom will be sufficient at all times to pay the expenses of operating and maintaining such works, facilities and systems and all of the municipality's obligations under any contract or bond resolution with respect thereto. The calculation of a user's bill shall be limited to the actual amount of volumetric usage, plus those fees reasonable and necessary for the cost of capital expenses, system operation and maintenance, and debt service.
The hearing ended with a warning from Jackson's Receiver. "The water crisis' root cause was the lack of financial resources. The City Council was unwilling to raise rates and the administration was unwilling to collect revenue. It was years of neglect on the financial side. That has created the culture we are battling now. We're battling a decade or more of this," said Mr. Henifin.
"If we want to go back to where we were before 2022, we need to starve the system of the financial resources.
Judge Wingate recessed the hearing without making a decision. The hearing will resume Thursday.
44 comments:
Why would the hearing not resume until Thursday? What could possibly be more important than this for Wingate right now? It should have resumed today at the latest. If the system fails, the people can thank Wingate.
Ted can raise rates without the court's
approval.
How do the rates compare to metro area cities? Raising rates is just penalizing the people who pay their bills while the problem is cause by people who never paid their bills.
Jackson's water and sewer rates rank 6th in the metro area.
https://www.wlbt.com/2025/07/15/analysis-jacksons-water-sewer-rates-rank-fourth-metro/
Stop whining. The rates are going up or no one will have water and sewer service.
DUH--
12:11 I would assume that the federal judge has other matters on his docket besides this and that this scheduling is a pretty fast turnaround in that court. That being said, I do hope some directive concerning the increase is forthcoming. It's a bitter pill, but Jackson has a lot of bitter pills to swallow if it is going to recover. Better sooner than later.
LMAO Jackson deserves to fail. You all deserve to suffer!
The COJ residents who don't pay and have not paid for years are - well,er- just different.
Who can blame these residents who have enjoyed the free ride for years- why would they even think about paying? The entitlement mentality is a durable mentality.
"Jackson Has a Culture of Not Paying"
Did Rukia Lumumba ever pay her past due property taxes?
Judge Wingate has had a well-earned reputation for letting things pile up on his desk for months or years. I was encouraged when he turned so aggressive on issues involving the problems with infrastructure, but now he's reverted. I sympathize to the extent that recent city administrations have let the billing issues go unaddressed, but it's time to put on the big boy pants (or skirts if you wish) and, however gradually, to make it known that water bills must be paid. ("Gradually" to me means no less than five years, which Henefin recognizes.) I'm no conservative, but I strongly believe that the days of "affirmative action," in all of its many forms, are over. No more free stuff, and no more blacks assuming that they can shoot up the place and the rest of us will keep looking away. I hope I have heard the last white citizen "excusing" the prevalence of black violence because "it's just black-on-black crime."
Wingate is notorious for being the slowest to judgment federal judge ever in Mississippi. His alacrity in this case, together with his holding a private meeting with an interested party - without notice to JXN water, or anyone else - suggests to me that Wingate wants to be the boss of Jackson’s water and sewer service, and the “savior of people who don’t want to pay their water bills”. Wingate’s a joke. I tried one non-jury case before him in Hattiesburg. The trial lasted one day, with 2 witnesses. It took Wingate 20 months to issue an opinion. He’s a joke.
@12:50. If Jackson fails, where are all those people I see driving into Jackson in the morning, and out of Jackson in the evening, gonna find jobs?
How do you allow 4,000 residents go without paying their water bills? Now that you know who they are, Jackson Water needs to collect.....
“The first shall be last, and the last shall be first”
I'm shocked that more lawyers who practice in front of Wingate have not said anything. Go try a case in front of Wingate. Almost an entire day is spent picking 7 jurors from a pool of 25 potential ones, including the hour Wingate spends explaining the significance of every portrait in the courtroom to the jury. Then, when trial starts, on an average day, you MAY have trial from 10:30 a.m. to noon and then after Wingate takes a 2.5 hour lunch break, you may question witnesses from 2:45 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. That he is taking this long for JXN Water is one of the least surprising things you will hear. Also, I like Judge Wingate, he just takes his time.
Has anyone heard about results from Judge Wingate's investigation into the Siemens settlement money?
My humble opinion.....Judge needs to get out of the way on this rate increase. Ted needs to cut the 4,000 not paying. (Glad he got an exception from Congress on the fed money.) That stops the "culture of not paying" in its tracts. And the city council and mayor need to go pick some pumpkins since they can't seem to handle anything that might upset *some* residents.
I am hearing two sides of the story from Henefin in this reporting. First he says, "he didn't focus on collection efforts until this year" so that means he is responsible for 2 of the 10 years of no consequences for non-payment. Hmm, why is that? Maybe he knew/knows a. they are not billing all the customers and b.the bills that are sent are not accurate. I can hear his defenders now, ..he is busy keeping the water flowing, blah, blah, blah.
He is not personally in the streets. He is the top-dog manager. Learn to delegate.
Then just after the quote section at the end, is this: The hearing ended with a warning from Jackson's Receiver (aka Henefin). "The water crisis' root cause was the lack of financial resources." Well, Ted, then maybe you should have worried about fixing the billing sooner. He had to be ordered by a federal judge to set up a location for customers to talk to someone in person. I promise you the people at the Pearl call center have no authority to fix anything. Clearly, he is determined to rule his kingdom in his own way and to hell with anybody representing the constituents.
Don't forget the crucial part of it all. Even with 100% of all collections coming in and rate increases for the next 5 years, there will still not be enough money to pay the expenses of running the water and sewer operations as he has set them up. So he gets to go home to Virginia leaving Jackson residents with a system set up to fail.
Are you talking about the ones who kept calling and asking for a bill, waiting for it to arrive, it never arriving, calling again, over and over and over again???
What would you do ?
Maybe he should start sending many of those people a bill before he sends a crew out to cut them off.
No surprise there -- the City of Jackson has a culture of not paying, too.
How much revenue has JXN Water lost by not raising rates in the Spring when the rate increase was first proposed?
That's why I don't go to change of plea hearings or sentencings in his court. He will take up to two hours going through every possible scenario so the defendant understands what he is pleading guilty to. A hearing most judges finish in less than a half hour.
2:23, For many months, my mother didn't get a water bill. This was before Jxn Water. I would go down there, every month, take a number, wait in line for however long it took, get to the window and ask for a printout of the bill. We did this for MONTHS until a bill finally started coming again. It was a pain in the butt. However, we used the water and knew we owed something. So I guess it boils down to that......we used water and knew we owed something. Call, get your balance, send it in, with or without a bill. Or pay over the phone and get a confirmation number/email from them. Not getting a bill---yea, its aggravating. But this bill, just like all utilities, needs to be paid.
I do with Jxn Water would establish an office where people could go speak to someone face to face. But honestly, we don't have that with Entergy anymore.
November 10, 2025 at 1:17 PM \
The thing you don't seem to understand is that Jackson has already failed. The suburbs support Jackson. Not the other way around. The businesses that are in Jackson are slowly leaving. Just slow enough that they hope the denizens don't notice.
good question 2:40
71% current collection rate. No problem. Just add an additional amount to cover the remaining 29% to folks like me who have never missed a payment ever.
Hey 3:24 PM Explain to me like a C student how the suburbs support Jackson? City of Madison annual tax revenues: ~$33.8 million, The City of Flowood, Mississippi, collects approximately $48 million,The City of Brandon, Mississippi, collects approximately $26 million now Begging ass Jackson -->Jackson, Mississippi, brings in approximately $160 million in combined tax money every year straight into its city coffers. Now what was that about suburbs supporting Jxn? you typed that sh.. trying to punch down with ignorance i think you failed economics class in that lil country town outside of Rankin you need to hide your ip next time it's 2025 Lol smdh
Sell COJ real estate assets, including the Zoo, Thalia Mara Hall and Convention Center. Please permit a regional authority to own and manage the airport. Generate a few million. Jackson can't take care of jack shit, let alone Jack's son. Own it, sell it. Go back to naming streets and bridges. One exception. Jackson desperately needs a reliable youth detention facility. Once that would have been a renovated old jail. Get it done so bad ass teens can be locked up, off the streets.
How much lost by feeding the sense of entitlement for Free Water?
November 10, 2025 at 3:24 PM Here
Just to reinforce my point WLBT had this article 7 days ago: https://www.wlbt.com/2025/11/07/three-jackson-businesses-closing-relocating/
Obviously, there has to be a rate hike. But the city took out massive debt, recouped 2/3 of it in a settlement with Siemens, that spent that 2/3 on something other than paying off the debt.
Basically, Jackson treated the water system like an ATM, and if should be stuck with the bill. Make the city pay the debt, not the water/wastewater system.
I’ve never seen a judge gets so “in the weeds” about things that are not directly an issue of law before the court.
2:58 you can go on their website under
stay current and set up an appt.
Henefin shouldn't be in the collection business to begin with! He was hired to repair the infrastructure of the water system. The COJ coulda got off it's collective ass & been working the billing / collection problem from day one!
@642pm, interesting point. What are the ramifications of that if it comes to the water fund defaulting on the bond debt?
A rate change delayed is a rate change denied. Wingate of all people would be sensitive to that, I would've thought.
9:03 the city is required to pay it.
The last administration thought everything should be free
9:03, I really don't know. I guess it falls on the city.
I think the issue of who is responsible for the bond debt (and payments to service it) should be discussed by the judge and the receiver. Thus far, it seems to be taken as a given that it's Henifin's problem.
Maybe that debt should be severed from the water/wastewater operations, at least to the extent that the money went elsewhere. Maybe that's where Wingate is going with his investigation of the Siemens money.
-6:42
So, if the debt falls on the City who doesn't have the financial capability to pay it and I agree that logically it seems to do so, does this lead to the bankruptcy of Jackson eventually? Once Ted is gone and the federal receivership ends, we all know the City Council/Mayor will not raise rates.
1:11 it's my understanding it would come out of city's sales tax revenue.
Maybe KF knows for sure.
1:11: As I understand it, state law does not allow for municipalities in Mississippi to file bankruptcy.
In Jackson, the water bill includes the bill for garbage collection. So how has the city continued to pay Richard's disposal? Obviously, the city is making up the difference from somewhere.
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