Collection rates top $8.3M a month for JXN Water, report says

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) — Monthly collections have surpassed $8 million a month for JXN Water, years after the utility took full control of the city’s water and sewer billing system.

Interim Third-Party Manager Ted Henifin recently published his report for the second quarter of 2026, which states monthly collections for that period averaged $8.3 million.

The figure represents a roughly 116% increase in water and sewer collections since the fourth quarter of 2023 — the first three months after JXN Water assumed control of billing. It also represents a roughly $1.3 million increase in monthly collections over the first three months of 2026.

JXN Water monthly collections 2026:

• January - $6,167,085.66
• February - $7,034,492.17
• March - $7,944,252.16
• April - $8,426,892.02
• May - $7,740,630.20
• June - $8,879,918.79

Henifin said even with the increase, JXN Water is not bringing in enough revenue to cover its debt service and that it continues to have “unmet and unfunded wastewater needs that continue to threaten public health and the environment.”

[READ: Heavy rains lead to 167M gallons of untreated wastewater being released into Pearl River]

Even so, “the gap between local revenue and total costs is closing. At the end of the reporting period, the average monthly shortfall was $665,172.54,” Henifin wrote.

To help make up for the shortfall, JXN Water cut operating costs by nearly 14% through the six months of 2026.

JXN Water also was able to catch up on past-due amounts, after it finally received a $54 million allocation from Congress.

The funds were awarded to the city as part of a 2023 omnibus spending bill allocating $450 million to help cover infrastructure repair costs in the wake of the 2022 Water Crisis.

Henifin and others had lobbied Congress to reallocate a portion of that $450 million to go toward JXN Water’s operating expenses.

The third-party manager received the funds in April, and by June 30, paid multiple aging invoices, leaving the utility with $26,050,648.00.

Henifin, meanwhile, says that with the rate increase, JXN Water may have the capacity needed to take on additional debt for sewer repair work.

“Aside from critical repairs to the Savanna Street WWTP, two ongoing illegal and public health-threatening sanitary sewer overflows require significant capital funding to resolve that JXN Water does not have,” he wrote. “Additionally, the needed dredging of the storm cells at Savanna… has been delayed as JXN Water does not have the funds to meet the local match.”

Savanna Street WWTP is the city’s main wastewater treatment plant. During the last quarter, more than 167 million gallons of untreated waste were released into the Pearl River, in part, due to excessive flows and the lack of capacity in its storm cells.

The report also provides additional insight into customer billing, including the number of metered accounts that are being paid. In June 2026, for instance, JXN Water issued 52,760 bills. That same month, 39,356 customers paid, representing a 75% collection rate based on the number of bills.

The number of customers using the call center has also increased, with 55,503 calls made in the second quarter — a roughly 29% increase over the first three months of the year. The average phone call lasted 3.52 minutes, with the average wait time being 2.7 minutes.

Henifin could not be reached for comment.

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