JACKSON, Miss.—JXN Water will allow the City of Jackson access to the water utility’s financial records amid the debate over a proposal to raise water utility rates in Mississippi’s capital city.
The agreement allows an accountant contracted with the City to review the utility company’s billing system, revenue collections and QuickBooks accounting data, Mitch McGuffey, an attorney representing JXN Water, told U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate on Wednesday.
One stipulation of the agreement is that the accountant cannot share the information publicly outside of members of the Jackson City Council and Jackson Mayor John Horhn, McGuffey said.
The City’s accountant plans to review the information and compile a report for the mayor and the Council about his findings, Jackson City Attorney Drew Martin told the judge on Wednesday. He said at a Nov. 13 court hearing that the City could not determine whether or not the rate increase is necessary without their accountant first reviewing the agency’s financial records.
He reiterated that message on Wednesday, Nov. 19.
“(The accountant) needs to get an idea of revenue coming in and verify what’s going out,” Martin told the court. “A large part of that analysis is to aid the City in evaluating an appropriate rate for residents.”
That review process, which Martin said should take until mid-December, will delay JXN Water’s plans to start notifying customers about the 12% rate increase they hoped to implement at the start of 2026. That will increase the average customer’s bill by about $9 to $11, JXN Water Lead Communications Specialist Aisha Carson told the Mississippi Free Press.
JXN Water must notify customers at least 30 days before implementing a rate increase, per the federal stipulated order that placed Interim Third-Party Administrator Ted Henifin in charge of the utility following the 2022 Jackson water crisis.
Wingate advised Henifin on Wednesday that while the City of Jackson completes its review of the agency’s financial records over the next few weeks, there should be “no notice to the public in the interim, no hiking of the water rate.”
“We’re under a tight time frame,” Henifin, who has argued for a rate increase for months, told the judge. He said that delaying the rate increase pushes back the agency’s goal to have the water and sewer systems in good financial standing for long-term sustainability by 2029.
JXN Water is missing out on at least $1 million a month in revenue that would have come in from the rate increase Henifin initially proposed in April, McGuffey said. Paying a higher utility bill is the price residents would have to endure to ensure the agency does not regress on its progress, the attorney said.
“We need this now. We needed it in April,” he added.
Carson echoed that sentiment following the hearing.
“Every day that we’re delayed impacts our ability to maintain progress in the system,” she told reporters standing outside the Thad Cochran United States Courthouse.
“We have worked tirelessly over the past two-plus years to bring the system to where it is now. We’re proud of that work that we’re doing, but we’re working every day to protect it and part of that is this rate proposal,” Cason continued. “We’re patient to work through this process because we feel like the things that we’ve done to bring this system back into compliance, we’re confident in those decisions that were made.”