JXN Water announced some good news and some bad news Friday. The good news: The collection rate is standing tall and proud at 85% and operating revenue exceeded operating expenses for the first time since 2020. The bad news is the utility is going to ask for a 10% rate hike in 2027.
Enforcement has lifted collections to about 82% year-to-date (targeting 85% for the year), and in the first half of 2026 operating revenues exceeded operating expenses for the first time since 2020. Even so, once debt service is included, the System still faces a near-term cash deficit that has been covered by rapidly diminishing federal grant funds.
Annual debt payments of $20 million plague the utility. Unfortunately, all avenues to reduce costs by restructuring debt services" have been unsuccessful. (Translation: The Shylocks won't budge.). The balance of the bonds is $139,785,000.
Although Judge Wingate finally approved a 12% rate increase six months ago - after taking nearly a year to approve the increase, thus costing JXN Water more revenue. However, JXN Water Manager Ted Henifin predicted the system will need future rate increases.
Despite the system's financial difficulties, the city's water/sewer needs continue to grow. JXN Water estimates $364 in sewer improvements and $404 million of water improvements will be required over the next 25 years.
Improved collections are a bright spot in the report as they improved from 60% in 2023 to 82% in 2026.
JXN Water assumes the collection rate will reach 85% this year. Improved cash flow offered some relief as well:
However, the report says will be years until revenues can carry the system.
Meanwhile on Facebook, certain contractors that looted the city for millions in the Siemen project have the nerve to criticize Henifin after they blew up the water system.
30 comments:
The raise is necessary due to all the straight-pipers still on the system.
But, but- I thought water was free in the COJ. At least it has been for years.
[AND] seemingly with each passing week there is another out-of-state apartment complex owner owing big dinero headed for the hills having pocketed their renter's water payments.
Years of neglect and failure to perform even the most routine maintenance has caught up to the system. Ted is the bearer of bad news, but you can look at about 10 prior administrations as being the problem.
Why will it take until 2028 to get collection rates to 95%? How do Jackson officials see that state of JXN Water's finances and want any part of that? It blows my mind how stupid Mayor Horhn is over this.
Excellent comment 8-24-26 @ 11:02AM.
Also add all the members of the city council.
Jackson has always been run poorly by its elected officials. Case in point. Check out the mayor headed for JAIL next month.
In a more Constitutional USA, a local utility should be held to a level billing rate per gallon or per cubic foot for all residential accounts. I prefer no access fee at all or atleast the exact same access fee for each residential account, regardless of income disparities. Why is this subtle Marxist disparity tolerated for this utility but not other utilities? The State Legislature passed a law requiring water to be billed on a per volume of use basis only!
Mayor Horhn lost me and several others that supported him… his ignorance to this issue and asking the state to allow the city to take over the water has cost him and then the new police chief was the nail in the coffin.
The amount of Water Service debt is what is astonishing. All that debt to create a huge grift pool as well as a system twice what the city can afford.
The city agreed to give Jxn Water the authority to raise rates, but they don't
want to talk about it.
Has Judge Wingate's attempts at discovery into the Siemens settlement money gone anywhere?
It seems to me a $50,000,000 payment on the debt principal would go a long way toward lowering the debt service.
Do it and don’t think twice. I would pay hundreds more per month as long as the water is on and is clear. 10% is NOTHING. The crowd that gets they eyelashes did and they unlimited data plan and they weaves are gonna be mad about this, but those of us who work jobs and are adults want reliable water. JXN Water is doing an incredibly great job. Thank you Ted!!
GOOD- Get Ted what he needs/ He is doing an excellent job . Thank goodness we have clean water to use when we turn on the tap- and Thank Goodness there are competent people running JXN Water!!
Cut all unpaid meters off.
@11:22- agree 100% and add the Airport to the list.
@1113 why do y'all get so hung up on the access/water availability fee? It's just revenue regardless of what you call it or how it's billed. Either JXN Water was going to raise rates to obtain the same amount of revenue the fee provides or get it via the fee.
I'm very worried that the "rate hike" is perceived as necessary (which it probably is), but some of the heavy influences of this are that JXN water is operated by the ultimate bureaucrat, who answers to a judge that takes a year to make a decision that can be made in 15 minutes. Jen water on site work is one of the single most inefficient operations I have ever seen, and I fear that we pay alot of money to have people stand around and do absolutely nothing (kinda like the sub contractors Entergy pays to trim trees on power line right of ways.....possibly one of the greatest fleecing scams ever).
August 24, 2026 at 11:02 AM
Horn's WLBT interview should have been a wakeup call that he's just a bird of the same flock. Of course that would require people to be able to read at a 10th grade level.
Did Fabian Nelson ever pay his bill?
Siemens money is gone.
The rate increase is necessary to operate and maintain the system. It takes a lot of money to run this stuff.
The access fee is very common and makes a lot of sense. There is a reason that every water utility has an access fee (most call it a "base rate").
A good start is to start/continue to sue Siemens for their non- performance of the system' meters they installed which never worked....EVER. Sue not simply for the meters installed, but for the interest and penalties involved, the continued pain and suffering inflicted upon the State's Capitol of Jackson, MS and its' citizens. Go for the throat here..
Only for you "straight pipers."
That ship sailed. We sued. We settled. Chokwe got to pay off $30 million to his lawyer buds in B'ham and Winston. Only a small amount was spent on the bonds. Almost none of it can be clawed back.
12:29pm (JPS Math?)
Like I said, let each residential account pay the same rate or the same rate plus the same access fee. The access fee is a surcharge so one group pays extra to subsidize another group of residential users. Unconstitutional transfer fee.
Suppose gasoline was sold like Jxn Water. If you drive an old beat up Suburban, you pay $3.50/gal.
But if you drive a svelte new luxury SUV, you pay $3.50/gal. + a $10 surcharge for "access".
Smell the Marxist inequity?
Wingate, not Horhn, will approve or deny the increase.
I wouldn't blame the bondholders considering the temporary state of JXN Water without a succession plan, combined with the history of past and current policymakers that refuse to accept responsibility for the decisions that must be made for a solvent water system.
If I held the bonds, I'd want the debt paid off as quickly as possible, instead of rolling the dice on refinancing.
I’m not paying it . They have no factual basis to make me pay!
2:05 Wingate is not even suppose to be
involved in Jxn Water raise.
This is one of the reasons why I moved to Rankin county. Atleast republicans know how to run a water system.
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