JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed laws Friday requiring localities to base water payments on private consumption, blocking a proposed reform by the federally appointed supervisor of the troubled water system within the state’s capital metropolis.

The Republican governor signed House Bill 698 months after Ted Henifin, who was appointed in November by a federal courtroom to assist enhance Jackson’s water infrastructure, launched a proposal calling for billing water primarily based on property values reasonably than private use.

Henifin stated the brand new billing mannequin can be a extra equitable technique of pricing water in a metropolis the place roughly 25% of residents stay in poverty.

It can be unfair to cost folks for water primarily based on components unrelated to how a lot they eat, Reeves stated in an announcement on Friday.

“Water bills based on property values squeeze the middle class,” Reeves stated. “They can’t afford to pay more for the home they already own. Water bills will continue to be based off of personal consumption – just like what is being done throughout the rest of the country.”

Rep. Shanda Yates, an impartial from Jackson, launched the laws, which handed with bipartisan assist. Several Jackson-area lawmakers opposed the invoice.

Repeated breakdowns in Jackson have induced many within the majority-Black metropolis of about 150,000 residents to go days and weeks at a time with out protected operating water. Last August, folks waited in strains for water to drink, bathe, prepare dinner and flush bathrooms. Henifin was appointed after the U.S. Justice Department gained a federal decide’s approval for a uncommon intervention to repair the town’s water system.

In January, Henifin launched a proposal calling for a month-to-month cap on water charges for properties and industrial properties. The proposed answer was a response to the lack of income Jackson has skilled as its tax base eroded over the previous few a long time. It additionally would scale back the system’s dependence on metropolis water meters, which have been mired in issues, Henifin stated.

“We are fundamentally flawed in the United States in that we price water only to burden that lower end of the economic spectrum, and we don’t even attempt to get more revenue from the upper end,” Henifin stated in a December interview with The Associated Press. “If you look at property values as a surrogate for income, we could generate more than enough revenue to actually own and operate and maintain the system.”

The new regulation takes impact July 1.

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An earlier model of the report incorrectly stated assist for laws coping with water billing got here nearly solely from Republican lawmakers who don't stay in Jackson. The laws handed with bipartisan assist.

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Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points.

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