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Republicans Squabble Through Messy 2nd Debate in California

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1 year ago

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This intense desire to break out of the pack – to emerge as the clear alternative to Trump – led to frequent cross-talk that made it difficult for the television audience to hear, and to constant interrupting and pointed insults by the seven candidates.

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Ron DeSantis needed a big night to revive his stalled presidential campaign and come within shouting distance of former President Donald Trump. It was a heavy lift, and probably too much to ask.

Florida’s governor certainly had his moments during the second Republican debate of the 2024 presidential season, sounding more poised and natural than he has been on the campaign trail or in the first debate last month. But DeSantis and the other six hopefuls were compromised by the format, fussy debate moderators, and their own propensity to bicker and interrupt one another.

Although the setting was the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum, the “11th commandment” popularized by Reagan (“Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican”) was in short supply here Wednesday night. Part of the problem was the palpable desperation on the part of a field that hasn’t dented Trump’s huge lead in the polls, either nationally or in the early primary states.

This intense desire to break out of the pack – to emerge as the clear alternative to Trump – led to frequent cross-talk that made it difficult for the television audience to hear, and to constant interrupting and pointed insults by the seven candidates, some of which were directed at the man who wasn’t here.

“Donald Trump is missing in action,” DeSantis said. “He should be on this stage tonight.” The most colorful criticism came from former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose campaign is predicated on bashing Trump. In a premeditated stunt, Christie turned to the camera and said, “Donald, I know you’re watching, you can’t help yourself. You’re not here tonight, not because of polls, and not because of your indictments. You’re not here tonight because you’re afraid of being on the stage and defending your record. You’re ducking these things … You keep doing that, and no one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore. We’re going to call you Donald Duck.”

Actually, Trump at that moment was working a crowd in Michigan where he went to troll President Biden, who broke with historical precedent to take a stint on the picket line with striking United Auto Workers. Trump’s aim was wooing blue-collar voters in the swing state of Michigan while blaming the Democrats’ fixation on green energy for the autoworkers’ woes. Attempt to drive a wedge between union workers and environmental activists, Trump accused Democrats of leading a “hit job” on Detroit.

“You can be loyal to American labor, or you can be loyal to the environmental lunatics,” Trump said, “but you can’t really be loyal to both – it’s one or the other.”

The 45th U.S. president also ridiculed his fellow Republican presidential contenders, questioning their motives for running and dismissing their chances of joining him on a 2024 Trump ticket. “They all want to be something,” Trump told rallygoers at a non-union auto parts manufacturing plant in Clinton Township. “Secretary of something. Even VP. Anybody see a VP? Nah.”

Marc Short, who served as Mike Pence’s chief of staff when he was vice president, punched back at Trump. “In light of the way the first administration completed, I’m not sure who would actually want to be his vice president,” Short told RealClearPolitics after the debate.

The first debate, held last month in Milwaukee, did little to alter the existing GOP pecking order. Far ahead in the polls both nationally and in the early primary states going into the Milwaukee debate, Trump also skipped that event. Although there is no evidence this hurt him with rank-and-file Republicans, one GOP candidate – former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley – did improve her standing in the polls with a forceful performance.

Her rise came partly at the expense of political novice Vivek Ramaswamy, who struggled in his first exposure to a mass audience. A 38-year-old businessman with no political experience, Ramaswamy alienated the rest of the primary field and struck many viewers as arrogant and condescending. At one point, he claimed in Milwaukee that he was the only one on stage who wasn’t “bought and paid for.”

Cognizant of how he came across in in the first debate, Ramaswamy waited for the right moment to address it Wednesday night. His opportunity came when he was criticized for his willingness to participate in a TikTok chat with social media influencer Jack Paul, when leading Republicans in Washington have advocated banning the app because of Chinese ownership and spying capabilities.

“So, the answer I have [is] a radical idea of the Republican Party,” the millennial biotech entrepreneur remarked. “We need to win elections. And part of how we win elections is reaching the next generation of young Americans where they are.”

Switching gears, the often-flippant Ramaswamy suddenly grew introspective while offering a clearly rehearsed mea culpa.

“Let me level with all of you, I’m the new guy here, and so I know I have to earn your trust,” he conceded. “What do you see? You see a young man who’s in a bit of a hurry, maybe a little ambitious, bit of a know-it-all, it seems, at times. I’m here to tell you, no, I don’t know it all. I will listen. I will have the best people and the brightest in this country, whatever age they are, advising me,” he added.

Haley wasn’t having any of it; she quickly stepped on his moment. “This is infuriating because TikTok is one of the most dangerous social media apps that we could have,” she said. “Honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.”

But if Haley’s antipathy for Ramaswamy seems visceral, the fight she picked with Sen. Tim Scott was discordant. The two South Carolinians had been longtime allies – as governor, she appointed Scott to the U.S. Senate – and when Perino pointedly asked Scott why he’d make a better president than Haley, Scott refused to engage. Instead, he simply made his own case, but not at the expense of Haley or anyone else.

When Haley got her turn at the microphone, she did not return the favor, attacking Scott on the dubious grounds that the federal budget had increased while he’s been in Washington. Later, when Scott did punch back, Haley smiled and said, “Bring it, Tim!”

While this was going on, DeSantis and Ramaswamy stood between them grinning. The one who should have been smirking was Donald Trump, as it was hard to see how this hot mess of a debate would do anything to erode his support.

Exacerbating the yelling and mutual bullying on the part of the candidates were several goofy questions by the moderators – Perino, Stuart Varney of Fox Business, and Ilia Calderón of Univision – who inisted on running through their list of pre-written questions even at the expense of interfering with the debate’s natural flow. To be fair, they had trouble controlling candidates who had no compunction about interrupting each other.

Amid the fractious bickering, Republicans were united on a few main bogeymen they know resonate with their base. They trained their focus and fire on China, the deadly fentanyl crisis, the chaos at the southern border, and the crime wave besieging America’s cities.

And though the candidates kept paying lip service to Ronald Reagan’s name, none of them displayed much of a feel for the Gipper’s style, and certainly not for Reagan’s dry wit. The attempts at humor ran the gamut from tasteless to juvenile. None seemed to strike the audience in the hall as remotely funny. Perhaps more to the point, few of these candidates proposed policies Reagan would even recognize as his own. This is not entirely their fault. As Fox News eminence grise Brit Hume put it succinctly in his pre-taped introduction to the debate: “What does it mean to be a conservative? Would Reagan even recognize the country in which we now live?”

In his 1989 farewell address as president, Reagan spoke evocatively of the Vietnamese “boat people” who came to American after the fall of Saigon because they recognized America as the beacon of freedom.

“I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it,” Reagan continued. “But in my mind, it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.”

That was in January 1989. Twenty-six years later, the Republican base was in a different place. Donald Trump perceived as much, and capitalized on it. The day before the September 2015 GOP debate – also at the Reagan Library – Trump whipped up the crowd aboard a retired U.S. Navy battleship. In his telling, immigrants weren’t freedom lovers “with the will and the heart to get here.” They were criminals and grifters.

Trump’s solution was to build a barrier along the southern U.S. border with Mexico. “There’s tremendous crime, there’s tremendous drugs pouring across the border,” Trump said. “We’re going to build a wall.” He didn’t mention any doors.

But this election is not really about Reagan’s style and Reagan’s record, even if it should be. The U.S. electorate has changed, too. Republican candidates haven’t fared as well since he left the scene. In the six presidential elections since George H.W. Bush – Reagan’s vice president – won in what was widely perceived as Reagan’s “third term,” the Republicans have won the popular vote exactly once.

But Reagan didn’t need to rouse his followers to storm the U.S. Capitol when he ran for reelection: He carried 49 states and won 59% of the popular vote. In other words, optimism doesn’t just feel good, it’s proven itself to be good politics. Has the country changed since then? Do the problems facing the country demand a different attitude? Perhaps, but long after he left office and in the face of the worst kind of news, Reagan stayed the course.

In a letter to the nation nearly six years after leaving office, Reagan announced that he was “one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease.” Reagan closed the note on a characteristically optimistic note. “I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life,” he wrote. “I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.”

On Wednesday night, the last word belonged, however incongruously, to Vivek Ramaswamy, who was 4 years old when Reagan left the White House and flew back with his wife Nancy to California. The exchange began when Perino tried to wrap up the two-hour melee with an awkward question: Which candidate would each of them “vote off the island” to help give one candidate a better chance at catching up with Trump?

DeSantis immediately took issue with the question, which he called “disrespectful,” while invoking Reagan’s 11th Commandment. Perino then pressed each candidate to outline their “mathematical path” to the nomination. DeSantis dismissed this question, too, along with polls showing Trump’s enormous and expanding lead in the race.

“Polls don’t elect presidents, and we’re going to take the case to the people in the early states, and we’re going to do that state by state and district by district,” he said. But Varney wasn’t letting the candidates off the hook. “Did you write something on the card?” he asked Christie.

It was a softball question that Christie was all too happy to hit out of the park.

“I’d throw Donald Trump off the island,” Christie said. “Every person on this stage has shown respect for Republican voters, to come here and to express their views, honestly, candidly, and directly. This guy not only divided our party, he divided families all over this country. He divided friends all over this country,” he said.

Ramaswamy, who has modeled his campaign and agenda after Trump’s, stepped in to defend the frontrunner, calling him an “excellent president.”

“But the America First agenda does not belong to Donald Trump. It does not belong to me. It belongs to you, the people of this country. And the question is, who is going to unite this country and take the America First agenda to the next level?”

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

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Title: Republicans Squabble Through Messy 2nd Debate in California
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Published Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2023 10:16:03 +0000

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Staring mortality in the face at Christmas

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11 months ago

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December 16, 2023

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My friend Jarrod is dying after an eight year battle with cancer. He’s lived a life worth celebrating, one that has drawn people to Christ.

I was going about my business this week when I received a text that stopped me in my tracks. A college friend was being moved to hospice care.

Jarrod Egley was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in early 2017. In the fall of 2018, tests revealed the cancer had spread to his lungs and Jarrod’s cancer was classified as Stage IV.

For almost eight years from the date of the original diagnosis, he’s fought. Through surgeries, radiation, endless rounds and cycles of chemotherapy, and experimental immunotherapies, he’s fought.

Last year, I flew out to California and spent some time with Jarrod and his wife, Emily. We sat outside one night. He acknowledged to me that it was not a question of ‘if’, but ‘when’ the cancer would claim his life. I told him I was sorry, because what else is there to say?

We talked about our faith, about the trials of Job, about Jacob wrestling with God, about Paul’s affliction. But mostly we reflected on our time together in school, on the good things, and the mundane things, that happened since.

Jarrod and I met at Tulane University. One Sunday morning in the Spring of my freshman year, I rose from my dorm room bed, dressed, and began walking down Saint Charles Avenue in New Orleans with no particular agenda. I walked until I came across First Baptist Church and the thought flickered in the vacuous recesses of my brain to enter.

Some would say it was a lark. The Calvinist in me says providence. The walk that morning changed the trajectory of my time at Tulane and my life on the whole. Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and the Baptist Collegiate Ministry became central to my life and put me in regular league with Jarrod. I met him first at the BCM and we ultimately ended up attending church together.

Jarrod was a faithful servant on and off campus. He helped organize a group of us that would weekly make our way down to the Esplanade seawall on the backside of the French Quarter to feed the homeless. On Friday nights, he could be found at chapel with a small cadre of students foregoing Bourbon Street for early 2000s worship music.

Jarrod was a loyal friend in those years. Never rude or biting. Not prone to an insult for an easy laugh. Persistently encouraging. An engineering student, his mind worked linearly and was oriented to problem solving. There were never a lot of wasted words — always a lot of deliberative questions when he disagreed or did not understand a point. He exhibited intelligence, empathy, and the kind of moral conviction that sets someone apart.

He also had a wry and dry sense of humor and a penchant for beating people at Madden football. He was fair-to-midland on the ultimate frisbee pitch. Along the way, there were crawfish boils, Mardi Gras outtings, poorly attended Tulane football games, and more than a decent amount of wing eating.

After college, I lost touch with Jarrod. He moved back to his home state of California. He got married to his college sweetheart, who could not have anticipated her husband’s journey, but has been a steady and constant helpmate throughout. Jarrod became a very successful engineer and a bourbon connoisseur. One of his bucket list trips took him to Kentucky, where he got to meet and became friends with bourbon “Hall of Famer” Freddie Johnson of Buffalo Trace acclaim.

Jarrod at Buffalo Trace Distillery (Spring 2022).

Sitting in his backyard nearly 20 years after graduating from Tulane, I saw many of the same qualities I had grown to admire when we were students together. I saw a husband who doted on and supported Emily’s passions. But I also saw someone whose body had been beaten to hell and back, who was tired, and who, like Jacob, had been wrestling with God. We quickly fell back into friendship, which perhaps is the mark of good friendship.

We all have aspirations in our youth — for the kind of spouse or parent we might be, for what we might accomplish, for what we might experience. Along the way, dreams are satisfied, modified, or they die on the vine. The clock inevitably works against all of us. That night in Oceanside, California, Jarrod, a numbers guy, saw that time was not on his side. He believed, as we all would, that he still had more to give, more impact to be made, and more things to see and experience.

After that trip, Jarrod and I stayed in touch, most frequently triggered by news of his cancer. It has been mostly the bad variety in recent months. Now spread throughout his body, down to his bones, he has lived in constant pain for months. Not even a steady diet of morphine and an implanted pain pump solve for it. Jarrod’s been hospitalized twelve times just in 2023.

But his matter of fact sense of humor and way of seeing the world remains in tact. So too does his faith that despite these trials, he has always been safe in the hands of Christ.

There are people in the world who believe that life is random, disordered, and without reason. I am not among them. I think my friend is staring mortality in the face at Christmas for a reason.

For thousands of years before Christ came, there was darkness and despair. Sin and shame gripped the hearts of men. Until one holy night, God, in His infinite love, mercy and wisdom, sent His son to save. Jesus is the light of the world and the hope of man. He has won victory over death and Jarrod’s will not be the exception. Jesus came for Jarrod, and for you.

For thousands of years since Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, His disciples have been used as divine instruments to point the way to God. Jarrod is among them. If life expectancies were the measure, Jarrod would be at the midway point for most people. He’s made a lifetime of impact for the Kingdom and on other people.

So, to my friend Jarrod, you were placed here with a purpose. You have run your race. You are loved. And when this chapter closes, you will hear “well done, my good and faithful servant.” There is no greater evidence of a life well lived.

While Jarrod and Emily have been fortunate to have health insurance, their portion of the medical bills so far in 2023 have eclipsed $30,000, and Emily is facing additional uncovered expenses during Jarrod’s hospice care, including a night nurse that costs over $400 a night. If you would like to help defray the cost, a contribution can be made at their Go Fund Me page.

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Title: Staring mortality in the face at Christmas
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Published Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2023 15:05:22 +0000

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Magnolia Mornings: December 15, 2023

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11 months ago

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December 15, 2023

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Important state and national stories, market and business news, sports and entertainment, delivered in quick-hit fashion to start your day informed.

In Mississippi

1. Laurin St. Pe’ named CEO of Singing River Health System

Laurin St. Pe

The Board of Trustees of Singing River Health System announced the immediate appointment of Laurin St. Pe’ as the Chief Executive Officer on Thursday.

“We are thrilled to announce Laurin St. Pe as the new CEO of Singing River,” said Steve Ates, Board President in a statement. “His wealth of healthcare experience and proven track record make him the ideal leader to steer our health system toward its next phase of growth and success.”

St. Pe’, who has been serving as Interim CEO since July 2023, said he is honored to assume the role of CEO at Singing River. He has worked at Singing River as Administrator of Singing River Health System’s Pascagoula Hospital and Gulfport Hospital, in addition to overseeing program service lines throughout the entire system to his subsequent appointment as Chief Operating Officer of Singing River.

The health system says St. Pe played a crucial role in the financial revitalization of Singing River Health System while steering the organization toward financial stability.

2. Gulfport-Biloxi airport, Stennis evacuated after threats

The Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport was evacuated on Thursday morning “out of an abundance of caution,” airport officials said, after receiving an emailed threat to certain transportation entities across the state.

The airport was thoroughly security swept, cleared and reopened in just over two hours. Gulfport-Biloxi is now operating regularly.

The threat was also sent to Stennis International Airport. Their staff and personnel were also evacuated until the facilities could be swept and cleared.

Any passenger whose travel was affected by the evacuation is encouraged to contact their respective air carrier.

3. Cassidy arrested in Iowa for beheading Satanic Temple statue

Former Mississippi congressional and legislative candidate Michael Cassidy was arrested this week in Iowa for beheading a statue at the state’s Capitol erected by The Satanic Temple.

Cassidy reportedly decapitated the statue and turned himself to police on Thursday. He was charged with fourth degree criminal mischief. He then started an online legal defense fund where he’s raised upwards of $20,000 as of Thursday night, according to his X account.

4. “Serial fraudster” ordered to cease offering investments into companies

According to the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office, on October 26, 2023, Secretary Michael Watson and the Securities Division issued an order against Stephone N. Patton. The SOS says Patton is a serial fraudster with multiple criminal convictions in Mississippi and Florida.

Through business filings with the SEC and Mississippi, Patton has held himself to be the CEO of various companies, including Star Oil and Gas Company, Inc., North Gulf Energy Corporation, Inc., Patton Oilfield Services, Inc., and Patton Farms, LLC.

The SOS says using these business filings and company websites, Patton claimed to have raised hundreds of billions of dollars through investment opportunities. Through investigative efforts and collaboration with the SEC, the SOS discovered none of Patton’s companies are operational, have any assets, or generate any revenues. Account records show Patton spent investors’ funds almost as soon as he received them on personal expenses. The total amount of known investments made to Patton’s fraudulent companies is over $80,000. Further, none of Patton’s investment offerings have been registered or notice filed with the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office.

The SOS order requires Patton to cease and desist from offering investments with his companies, requiring Patton to permanently deactivate his companies’ websites to prevent any further dissemination of his false or misleading information. Patton is also ordered to pay an administrative penalty of $25,000 to the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office for these violations, in addition to restitution owed to all his Mississippi investors.

National News & Foreign Policy

1. Congressional retirements mounting as 2024 election cycle nears

Retirement and departure announcements are piling up ahead of the start to the 2024 election cycle. The New York Times has developed a Retirement Tracker that currently shows 22 Democrats and 11 Republicans who are in Congress now will not be seeking re-election next year.

“Dozens of members of Congress have announced plans to leave their seats in the House of Representatives, setting a rapid pace for congressional departures, with more expected as the 2024 election draws closer,” the NY Times reports. “Given Republicans’ razor-thin House majority, the wave of exits has the potential to lead to a significant shake-up next year.”

You can find the tracker here.

2. Texas, Daily Wire, The Federalist sue U.S. State Department over media censorship

The U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Center has come under fire as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton along with The Daily Wire and The Federalist have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the department funded technology that could “render disfavored press outlets unprofitable.” They claim that the department has helped social media – Facebook, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) – to censor free speech while funding technologies used to censor right-leaning news outlets such as theirs.

New Civil Liberties Alliance is representing The Daily Wire and The Federalist. Paxton and the outlets claim the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a British think tank, received a $100,000 grant from the State Department in 2021, and NewsGuard, which rates the “misinformation” levels of news outlets, received $25,000 from the State Department in 2020, according to the lawsuit.

According to the State Department’s website, the Global Engagement Center’s mission is to direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate U.S. Federal Government efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations.

As reported by Reuters, the lawsuit cited a GDI-produced list from December 2022 that ranked The Daily Wire and The Federalist as among the 10 “riskiest sites” for news while the least-risky included The New York Times, Associated Press and NPR. Reuters notes that the lawsuit alleges such “blacklists” are reducing revenues to The Daily Wire and The Federalist along with their visibility on social media and ranking results from browser searches.

Sports & Entertainment

1. SEC releases 2024 schedules

Wednesday evening, the Southeastern Conference released the 2024 football schedules for its member schools, including of interest in the Magnolia State the schedules for Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

It is the first schedule that includes new conference members University of Oklahoma and University of Texas, bringing the conference to 16 schools. Each SEC team will play eight conference football games plus at least one required opponent from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 or major independent, each team will have two open dates.

The 2024 season will be the first year the SEC will play a schedule without divisional competition since 1991. The top two teams in the league standings based on winning percentage will play in the 33rd SEC Football Championship Game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Saturday, December 7.

2. White, Jesiolowski, Jones honored by MAIS

John White

The Midsouth Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) in Mississippi, comprised of non-public schools, announced this week that Madison-Ridgeland Academy’s senior quarterback John White was named the 6A Player of the Year while Hartfield’s Reed Jesiolowski and Hartfield Chris Jones were named the MAIS 6A Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, respectively.

All three have committed to play college football at the University of Mississippi.

White is Mississippi’s all-time leader in career passing yards with 15,259 yards, a record he broke during the 2023 season.

MAIS, like the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) for public schools, is broken down into classifications, from 1A to 6A. However, MHSAA added a 7A this season.

Markets & Business

1. Consumer retail sales up as energy, gas prices move down

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week that the Consumer Price Index rose 0.1% in November after being unchanged in October. Retail sales rose 0.3% in November after rising 0.2% in October, meaning consumers continue to spend at the start of the holiday season.

The CPI or inflation rate is 3.1%, higher than the Federal Reserve target of 2% but below the 9% peak in 2022 which reached a 40-year high.

As for the energy index, BLS reported that it fell 2.3% in November after decreasing 2.5% in October. The gasoline index decreased 6% in November, following a 5% decrease in the previous month.

The index for fuel oil fell in November, decreasing 2.7%. However, the natural gas index rose 2.8% over the month after rising 1.2% the previous month. The index for electricity also rose 1.4% in November, after increasing 0.3% in October.

The energy index fell 5.4% over the past 12 months. The gasoline index decreased 8.9%, the natural gas index declined 10.4%, and the fuel oil index fell 24.8% over this 12-month span.

2. Week’s market rally continues into Friday

At close of trading on Thursday, the U.S. markets continued the week’s rally, pushing the Dow up 158 points to 37,248 while the Nasdaq and S&P also made gains, 27 points and 12 points, respectively, to close at 14,761 and 4,719.

The record high for the Dow on Thursday moved futures up 102 points.

According to CNBC, the major averages are headed for their seventh straight positive week. As of Thursday, the Dow is higher on the week by 2.8%. The S&P 500 is up by 2.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.5% this week.

Stocks rallied after the Federal Reserve left rates unchanged this week while members look towards cuts in the new year and beyond.

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Published Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2023 13:00:00 +0000

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New water rates expected in Jackson come 2024; those who don’t pay face shut off

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11 months ago

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December 15, 2023

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Interim Third-Party Director Ted Henifin said this week that only about 59% of the City of Jackson’s water customers are paying their bills.

JXN Water has announced new rates and fees coming in 2024. Those who are not paying will be at risk of shut offs.

The company, which was established by federal appointed interim Third-Party Director Ted Henifin, has been overseeing the city’s water system for the better part of a year.

Officials estimated that the average cost for water in the city was $76 per month for residents. Henifin clarified that JXN water will not attempt to recoup any charges prior to November 29, 2022, and will work with those who have failed to pay since that time.

He said only about 59 percent of the city’s water customers are paying their bills.

“You can’t forgive bills, so we have to be creative in how we part that,” said Henifin in reference to Mississippi’s laws that prevent giving away water.

According to a release by JXN Water announcing the rate changes, residents in single family households with small meters that use up to 748 gallons daily would see a bill increase of roughly .30 cents per day. Research indicates that the average U.S. family uses 300 gallons per day.

SNAP customers will have a new rate tier that could lower their bill by up to .69 cents per day, on average.

“Those who need to save the most benefit from saving money by drinking tap water. This new rate structure makes water affordability possible for 12,500 JXN Water customers who receive SNAP benefits,” said Henifin in the release.

Read more about the anticipated rate changes here.

New fees will also be implemented, including a new service fee of $50, service deposit of $100, returned check fee of $25, service restoration fee of $100, and meter tampering charge of $500. 

JXN Water has continued to encourage residents to use the water, with Henifin going on the record in a federal status hearing saying that the water “was safe to drink.”

More conversation regarding the billing process is expected to come at next week’s Jackson City Council meeting.

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By: Sarah Ulmer
Title: New water rates expected in Jackson come 2024; those who don’t pay face shut off
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Published Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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