Burley Garcia|Jackson’s water rates to increase early next year

JACKSON,Burley Garcia Miss. (AP) — Early next year, residents in Mississippi’s capital will see higher water rates.

The Jackson City Council on Tuesday unanimously abstained from voting on a proposal to change the city’s water billing rate structure that will result in an increase, WLBT-TV reported. The vote was largely ceremonial but was required under the third-party order governing Jackson’s water system and it will move forward, the television station said.

The council’s last change to water rates was in December of 2021, City Attorney Catoria Martin told the council.

After the meeting, interim Third-Party Manager Ted Henifin told the television station that JXN Water will start advertising the new rate increases as soon as Wednesday and will implement the new rates as early as February.

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A federal judge appointed Henifin to manage Jackson’s long-troubled water system in November 2022. The pending changes will include a new graduated rate structure based on overall water use as well as an availability fee for meters. Henifin said the increases are necessary to generate the additional revenue needed to fix Jackson’s sewer system and address rising operation costs.

Several council members told Henifin they didn’t want to vote for the increase but not because of any adversarial issues toward him.

“I just can’t in good conscience vote to raise rates for people who have not been getting water at some times out of the tap, and sometimes not clean,” Council Vice President Angelique Lee said.

When Henifin took over the system, Jackson’s water was not meeting all Safe Water Act guidelines. As of today, it is.

“We understand what you have to do in terms of putting the system on sound footing not just for today, but for tomorrow or in the future, but we still get people calling about bills that are erroneous,” Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes said. “I support what you’re doing, but I just can’t support a vote to raise rates.”