Mississippi Today
‘There’s a hunger to see if we can pull this off’: Henifin talks next steps for funding Jackson water
‘There's a hunger to see if we can pull this off': Henifin talks next steps for funding Jackson water
Jackson water head Ted Henifin said Friday he would recommend to extend federal oversight of the city's water system to five years, allowing his team to make the necessary infrastructure improvements using recently allocated federal funds.
During a press conference where he discussed his financial proposal for future funding of the city's water system, Henifin also said a bill now before the Legislature may put a roadblock in the way of his planned changes to the water billing system.
Henifin emphasized that Jackson's infrastructure is still in a place where the system could “fail tomorrow,” but that the roughly $800 million coming to Jackson will be enough to address the city's issues as long as it can have a stable revenue plan moving forward.
“I'd say, yes, the (roughly) $1 billion is enough, once we're on a good foundation moving forward,” he said.
His press conference Friday came hours after submitting a financial proposal to a federal judge. Henifin will spend the next few months receiving feedback from the public, with the goal of having a new revenue model to fund the water system in place on Oct. 1.
It also comes at the end of week where bills that would affect his billing plans and wrest control of the water system were making their way through the Legislature.
New state bill could thwart changes to billing model
Henifin acknowledged Friday that he's proposing a billing structure for residents based on customer's property value rather than how much water a customer consumes, an idea aimed at restoring trust in the billing system and keeping rates affordable.
He explained that the median single family household would pay about $50 a month for water and sewer, similar to what that home would be paying now. In another example he gave, someone with a $100,000-valued property would be paying about $100 a month.
Bills would be capped at $150 a month for residential properties, he said, and at $600 for commercial properties.
As far as he knew, the only other utility in the country with such a model is Milwaukee with its wastewater system. He added that cities across the nation are looking to revamp their billing structures because traditional systems are making services unaffordable for poorer residents. Those places, he explained, will be paying close attention to how such a change would work in Jackson.
“There's going to be a big hunger to see if we can pull this off and find a better way to do it,” Henifin said.
While some water policy experts believe bills should have some connection to residents' consumption to not strain a city's infrastructure, Henifin said the city is losing so much water as it is — 25 million to 30 million gallons a day, or at least half of the 50 million gallons a day the city can produce — that consumption isn't a concern.
“There's no amount of conservation that our residents could do to make up for the amount we're losing,” he said. “If (Jacksonians) decide to run their sprinklers all day and take half hour showers every morning, it's not going to make a difference compared to the mountain of water we're losing.”
Per the recommendation of the state Health Department, Jackson has placed residents under a water conservation advisory since last summer.
The bigger concern, Henifin explained, is making sure the city has reliable revenue through its billing system, which has been plagued for years by faulty metering. That money, along with the recent federal funds, will go to upgrade the fragile water lines that are causing the city to lose so much of its water.
He added that a new hydraulic model for the city, which is near completion, will help show where the city's leaks are. Because the city doesn't have a model, “we've got little knowledge of what happens” when water leaves the two treatment plants, he said.
But changes to the city's billing could be put on hold if state lawmakers have their way. On Thursday, the Senate approved a bill that would require cities to charge customers for water based on their consumption.
While the U.S. Department of Justice order appointing Henifin gave him broad authority, he clarified that it doesn't allow him to violate state law, and that if the he bill is signed by Gov. Tate Reeves he may have to reconsider the plan.
When asked what it would mean for ratepayers if the city sticks to a consumption-based system, he said rates would have to go up 50% to generate the necessary revenue for the city. He added that some homes would see an increase in their bills with his proposal as well.
Bill that would shrink Jackson's control
Henifin was also asked about another bill, which passed through a Senate committee on Tuesday, that would create a nine-member board to oversee Jackson's water system when the DOJ lifts its current order; five of the appointments would be made by the governor and lieutenant governor, and just four would come from the Jackson's mayor, effectively removing control from the city's leadership.
The bill would also require the board to consult with the mayors of Byram and Ridgeland, despite the latter having sparse property that's served by Jackson water.
Henifin in an interview with WLBT on Wednesday called the plan a “pure grab for money”.
Part of the DOJ order gives Henifin the ability to recommend how Jackson manages the water system moving forward. While not directly addressing the Senate proposal, Henifin said he'll recommend that the DOJ extend its oversight of the water system to five years, giving his team enough time to spend the new federal funding.
He added that one option that he thinks “may have some merit” is creating a board-led nonprofit that could procure contracts more quickly than what is allowed for a municipal government.
Climbing out of debt
Henifin began Friday's briefing discussing Jackson's debt. With a poor credit rating and no cash on hand, the city would struggle to borrow any money for its water system as things stand today, he explained. Right now, the city is having to pay back $23 million a year towards its debt.
The goal, he said, is to get Jackson to a point where it can borrow money if it needs to. To do that, Henifin said he's planning to spend $290 million of the $450 million provided by Congress for capital improvements to eliminate the city's debt.
He said that doing so will still leave enough money to make the necessary infrastructure upgrades, especially when factoring in the city's projected revenue that would come with his financial proposal.
“In five years, we'd be generating $20 million a year in capital improvement money that could go back into our system year after year after year,” Henifin said. “And the rates will be affordable across the population in Jackson. So I don't think we can hit a bigger home run than that.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
Q&A: Explaining the health care coverage gap
Lawmakers and advocates regularly refer to Mississippians without health insurance who are in the “coverage gap.” But what is the coverage gap, why does it exist and how does it relate to Medicaid expansion?
Medicaid is a federal-state program that provides health coverage to millions of people in the U.S., including low-income adults, children, pregnant women, elderly adults and people with disabilities. States administer the program, which is funded by both states and the federal government. Mississippi participates in the traditional Medicaid program, but the Legislature is debating two differing proposals that would expand Medicaid.
The coverage gap refers to a certain group of uninsured people in states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, the federal health reform law enacted in 2010 under the Obama administration. The law sought to make health insurance affordable and accessible to more people and provides subsidies that lower costs for households with incomes between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level, or between $18,210 and $72,840 in annual income, respectively, for an individual.
The Affordable Care Act also expanded Medicaid eligibility to adults under 64 years of age with income up to 138% of the federal poverty level – or $20,782 annually for an individual in 2024. But a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2012 made expansion optional, creating the “coverage gap” in states that did not opt to expand the federal-state program.
What is Medicaid?
What is the coverage gap?
Why does it exist?
In Mississippi and the nine other states that have not expanded Medicaid, there is a gap between people whose income is not low enough to qualify for non-expanded Medicaid but less than 100% of the federal poverty level, or about $15,000 a year for an individual, to qualify for subsidized insurance through the federal marketplace. To qualify for Medicaid in Mississippi under current regulations, one's household income must be less than 28% of the federal poverty level, or a mere $7,000 annually for a family of three. Non-disabled childless adults are not eligible for Medicaid unless they have another qualifying condition.
How many people fall into the coverage gap?
Roughly 74,000 Mississippians fall into the coverage gap, according to a recent KFF study. Nationally, the number is 1.5 million people.
What is Mississippi's uninsured population?
Mississippi had one of the highest uninsured rates among working-age people in the country in 2022 at 16.4%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
Are people in the coverage gap employed?
In 2019, of the 178,000 uninsured Mississippians making below 138% of the poverty level, the majority – nearly 61% – were either working or looking for work. Many of those not in the labor force are unable to work due to a mental health or medical condition; lack of transportation; caring for a family member or recent incarceration, among other circumstances. More recent years' data has been skewed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and extended Medicaid coverage for people who would not have otherwise been eligible.
Nationally, according to KFF, the most common jobs of people in the coverage gap are cashiers, cooks, waiters-waitresses, construction/laborers retail salespeople and janitors.
What keeps businesses from offering health insurance to its employees or from offering it with reasonable deductibles?, according to Hilltop Institute at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Larger employers – those with over 50 employees – are required to offer health insurance to their employees or pay a penalty. For smaller employers, offering health insurance is not mandatory. And because it is often more expensive, smaller employers will offer benefits with higher deductibles and copays in order to reduce their own expenses. So those employed at a small business either may not have the option of health insurance or may choose to opt out because of cost.
Nearly 69% of private businesses in Mississippi employ fewer than 50 employees, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. It's up to 95% when public employees are included, according to Hilltop Institute at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
How many people would the House and Senate plans make eligible for Medicaid, and how many of those are in the coverage gap?
The House plan – which is traditional expansion under the Affordable Care Act and would make Mississippi eligible for hundreds of millions of federal dollars – is estimated to cover 200,000 Mississippians. That would include people in the coverage gap and others.
The Senate plan – which is not traditional expansion and does not qualify the state for the federal match – would insure about 40,000 Mississippians. This would include only people in the coverage gap, or only those making up to 99% of the federal poverty level.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
The unlikely Mississippi politician who could tank Medicaid expansion
Note: This editorial is featured in Mississippi Today's weekly legislative newsletter. Subscribe to our free newsletter for exclusive access to legislative analysis and up-to-date information about what's happening under the Capitol dome.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann is a good man who has dedicated his adult life to helping Mississippians.
That's why so many Mississippians are baffled by his dug-in position on Medicaid expansion, which right now threatens to kill one of the most transformative policy proposals that has moved through the Capitol since the 1980s.
Medicaid expansion would provide health insurance to 200,000 Mississippians, most of whom work in low-income, no-benefits jobs and cannot otherwise afford it. It would give so many of those people the chance to stay healthy and keep regular work for the first time in their lives. It would bring billions in additional federal money to the poorest state in the nation, where more than half our rural hospitals are on the verge of financial collapse and so many other needs are underfunded.
It would save lives and livelihoods, and it could legitimately change the trajectory of the state.
But Hosemann's stubborn position on one element of any potential expansion plan — requiring Medicaid recipients to work — jeopardizes the entire proposal. Across the nation, 13 states have tried to implement various forms of a work requirement for Medicaid recipients. The federal government, which runs and funds Medicaid, shot down all 13 efforts.
As legislative leaders will soon meet to try to agree on an expansion bill, Hosemann is doubling down on his insistence that any final plan include the work requirement, adding that its omission from a final bill will not get the Senate votes to pass. If he sticks to his guns, this would almost certainly mean Medicaid expansion dies in Mississippi.
“If you're not working, then you need to go get a job,” Hosemann said in a conservative radio interview just two days ago, reiterating his desire for a work requirement. “… We want them to be working. We have a 53.9% labor participation rate. That's horrific, the worst in the country … If you want a job in Mississippi, you can get one. And so we thought it was very important to have people who are working to have the opportunity to have health care. That's why we passed what we did.”
The state's labor participation rate is, indeed, dismal. But the lieutenant governor in the interview didn't mention the very legitimate reasons so many Mississippians, the unhealthiest American citizens with some of the nation's worst rates of chronic illnesses, cannot work. He did not detail the many financial barriers to those same Mississippians, who are the poorest in the nation, have to finding and keeping steady employment. He did not touch on the state's child care crisis, which for many Mississippians makes regular child care more expensive than what a person can make in a full-time minimum wage job.
READ MORE: To work, Selinda Walker needs health care. To get health care, she needs work.
The irony of Hosemann being the roadblock to passing Medicaid expansion is not lost on people who closely observe Mississippi politics. For years, Hosemann has been among the only prominent Republican leaders to express openness to it (though he has always refused to use the term “Medicaid expansion”). As he sat largely alone on that limb, conservative Republicans worked hard to use it against him, even helping earn him the moniker “Delbert the Democrat” from his 2023 GOP primary challenger Chris McDaniel.
On expansion and several other issues, Hosemann, who crushed McDaniel in that primary, has been a more moderate voice than most of his right-wing Republican counterparts. In a polarized state in a polarized political era, many people respect him greatly for that. Few modern Mississippi politicians could boast legitimate bipartisan support, but Hosemann certainly is on that list.
I've closely covered and gotten to know Hosemann for many years now. I've personally witnessed his strong character. I've taken up for him a great deal, even landing the nickname “Delbert's bootlicker-in-chief” from his political opponents last year. What I've seen is a measured, thoughtful and wildly intelligent leader. He's a true numbers guy and a policy wonk, and he's surrounded himself with smart advisers.
He's focused as much of his career on health care improvements as any modern Mississippi elected official. Before he entered public life, he was a legal adviser to health care organizations. Since he was elected, he's visited struggling hospitals and built strong relationships with the most important health leaders in the state, who have persistently talked with him about the benefits of expanding Medicaid. He even visited Arkansas before last year's legislative session to personally learn and study their unique expansion model. He knows what's at stake, and he knows the solutions.
Most people assumed Hosemann would be the out-front leader on expansion, but that has not yet happened. He appeared flat-footed when House Speaker Jason White pushed a traditional expansion plan through his GOP-controlled chamber with overwhelming ease. And what he proposed a month later is not an expansion plan at all.
Hosemann and his fellow Senate Republican leaders tossed aside the House proposal without public debate or serious consideration and proposed their own plan that would draw down hundreds of millions dollars less than the House's traditional expansion plan would. Additionally, the Senate plan would insure between 150,000-200,000 fewer Mississippians than the House plan.
But none of the differences in the House and Senate plans would matter at all if Hosemann keeps his heels dug in on the work requirement. The federal government will not approve it, and a federal court challenge — very much a shot in the dark during a big presidential election year — could cost state taxpayers millions and continue to leave people without health insurance and hospitals without financial help for years to come.
Across the nation, 20 Republican-controlled states expanded Medicaid even without being able to include their coveted work requirement. Those states came up with creative solutions that still drew down the full federal dollars and opened wide the door for increased health care access while instilling the value and importance of hard work.
Hosemann, often to his credit, has made a point to let Senate Republicans make their own decisions and not strong-arm them into unfavorable votes. But at the end of the day, some of the most transformative policy proposals require strong leadership. In North Carolina, for instance, the latest red state to expand Medicaid, bold and pragmatic leadership from the Republican Senate leader who previously stood against expansion prevailed.
“I felt that I had a certain responsibility — that if the reasons that I had articulated for 10 years no longer exist, then I had a responsibility to be honest with myself and be honest with other people about that,” Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger told The New York Times last year. “And so I talked to my members, and I told them where I was — and why.”
In 2020, Hosemann employed this exact strategy to help garner enough Republican votes to change the state flag, then the last in the nation containing the Confederate battle emblem. Those were tough votes for many Republicans, but one-by-one, Hosemann brought in the holdout senators, laid out his own position to them and asked them to consider changing their votes. It worked.
If Hosemann has a willingness to find creative solutions around the work requirement or talk to his Republican Senate colleagues about supporting a real Medicaid expansion program, he's not publicly expressed it. If he doesn't, lawmakers will likely go home without expansion in early May despite being closer to true transformation than ever.
Whether the effort passes or dies in the coming days will likely be in Hosemann's hands. But two major questions remain: Can the most prominent Republican champion of Medicaid expansion for years get it across the finish line? And does he even have the desire to?
READ MORE: Senate Republicans should know: This is literally life-or-death.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Brother wants answers after body pulled from Pearl River IDed as missing Jackson man
With a preliminary identification of remains pulled from the Pearl River as that of missing Belhaven Heights resident Dau Mabil, his brother has secured a restraining order barring the body's release before an autopsy and U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson is requesting a Justice Department investigation.
A preliminary autopsy of a body recovered from Lawrence County was completed and an official DNA confirmation is expected by early next week, said Bailey Martin, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety. In a Facebook post, Lawrence Counnty Sheriff Ryan Everett said the preliminary autopsy “did not reveal any type of foul play. The official determination may be made at a later time, pending further testing.”
On Thursday, Mabil's brother, Bul Mabil, and his attorney Lisa Ross gathered at the Museum Trail entrance in Belhaven Heights where Dau Mabil was last seen.
“We want to know what happened to Dau,” said Bul Mabil. “And if anybody has put their hand on my brother, these people will have to be held accountable. And that's why I'm here to get to the bottom of it.”
Video surveillance from the area showed what is believed to be several people moving a body into a truck, said Lisa Ross, Bul Mabil's attorney.
They were at the trail to show where Mabil likely fought for his life and to encourage people to come forward with any information about his disappearance.
Thursday morning, Hinds County Chancery Court Judge Dewayne Thomas approved Bul Mabil's request for an emergency temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent the release of Dau's body until autopsies can be done by the State Medical Examiner's office and an independent examiner, according to court records.
“Given the nature of Mr. Mabil's disappearance and the location of the body found, it is likely that an autopsy will be required to determine if foul play was involved,” Thomas wrote in his order.
Defendants named in the restraining order are Mabil's wife, Karissa Bowley, the Capitol Police and the State Medical Examiner's office. Judge Thomas' order notes that none of the defendants or attorneys representing them came to the Thursday morning hearing.
“We were very concerned that a body could be released without a proper autopsy being done,” Ross said. “We know that autopsies are very important in determining a cause of death, and this family wants to know the cause of death.”
Bowley did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.
On Wednesday, Thompson asked the Department of Justice to open an investigation into the disappearance of the Jackson man.
“Your immediate attention is necessary because I have been informed your immediate action is necessary because of the circumstances surrounding his disappearance,” Thompson wrote in a Wednesday letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
In the letter, Thompson mentioned the discovery of human remains in the Pearl River over the weekend, which he was informed could be Mabil.
Mabil, 33, was last seen March 25 after his wife said she received a text message from him and he left without his phone. Video footage showed him near Jefferson Street between Fortification and High Street, along his usual walking area between Belhaven Heights and downtown.
The family filed a missing persons report with the Capitol Police, which has jurisdiction over the Belhaven and downtown area where Mabil lives and was last seen.
The family said they did not believe that he disappeared without a reason.
Bul Mabil is calling on Capitol Police and the Jackson Police Department to work together and find out what happened to Dau. A spokesperson from the Department of Public Safety declined to comment further because of an open and active investigation.
Bul Mabil said his brother was the youngest of six siblings. Their mother who still lives in a refugee camp is devastated by his death. Dau Mabil has a son. whom Bul Mabil said he plans to raise.
The brothers were brought to Jackson after escaping war torn Sudan, and in America they hoped for a better life.
“None of us believed that we would lose our lives here … and look what happened?” said Bul Mabil. “My brother is not here.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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