JACKSON, ma’am. — For the second year in a row, the Mississippi Senate has passed a bill that would transfer control of the state’s capital’s problematic water system to a regional government.
Republican Sen. David Parker of Olive Branch introduced a slightly modified version of the bill after last year’s version died in the House of Representatives. The proposal drew fierce opposition from Jackson officials, who said the Republican-controlled Legislature was usurping the authority of local leaders, most of whom are Democrats.
Nearly every Democrat in the Senate voted against the bill again Tuesday before it passed on a 35-14 vote. The legislation was held due to the possibility of more debate in the Senate. It would ultimately go to the House of Representatives.
The bill would create a nonprofit entity known as the Mississippi Capitol Region Utility Authority to operate Jackson’s water system. It would be overseen by a nine-member board, with one appointment by the mayor, two by the Jackson City Council, three by the governor and three by the lieutenant governor. Under the original version of the bill, city officials would not have had any appointments.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba opposes the bill, saying it is an example of a white-majority, Republican-led legislature trying to take control of a city with a majority Black population.
Parker said the bill would help address issues that have disrupted utility service on numerous occasions and left residents without consistent access to running water. Infrastructure failures in 2022 left some Jackson residents without water for their basic needs for weeks.
Parker’s district is in northwest Mississippi, but he lives with his daughter in an apartment complex in Jackson when the Legislature is in session. He said scooping water from the building’s pool to use in the toilets of their shared apartment was part of what motivated him to write the bill.
“To continually hear and see in the newspapers that as a customer of the Jackson Water Authority I have no business addressing this situation is troubling to say the least,” Parker said on the Senate floor.
Two Democratic senators representing parts of Jackson — Sollie Norwood and Hillman Frazier — peppered Parker with questions about why he didn’t meet with them before introducing the proposal.
“Senator Parker, you realize that I represent the city of Jackson … and you haven’t said a word to me about this,” Norwood said.
Parker responded that he had his assistant post memos on senators’ desks and that he had incorporated feedback from several people in Jackson. Parker pointed to the support of Ted Henifin, the manager appointed by a federal court in December 2022 to manage the water system on an interim basis.
“It appears that many of the comments I made last session on the bill introduced in 2023 have been taken on board and this bill now incorporates many of the suggestions I made at the time,” Henifin said in a statement declaration.
One of the comments Henifin made was that federal funds should only be used within the areas served by Jackson’s water system. Lawmakers in the Jackson area were concerned that hundreds of millions in federal funds approved by Congress to repair the city’s water system would be diverted to other areas.
The bill is intended to ensure there is a governance structure in place if Henifin leaves Jackson and federal funds run out, Parker said. The federal decision appointing Henifin does not set an end date for his appointment as Jackson’s water manager.
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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 national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mikergoldberg.