Jackson Mayor John Horhn asked state lawmakers for help raising money for the city’s water system during a Thursday committee hearing at the Capitol.

JXN Water, the city’s third-party water manager, raised the alarm several times this year over funding shortfalls and said last month the system was “insolvent.” The utility is losing $3 million a month, it says.

“We think that the state’s assistance is going to be required,” Horhn told members of the Capital City Revitalization Select Committee. “We have to come up with an additional revenue stream, at least temporarily, over the next few years until we can get the water system back to solvency.”

The mayor, a Democrat who took office July 1, listed a few avenues for funding, such as increasing tax diversions from the Capitol Complex Improvement District or increasing the city’s 1% sales tax. The latter, though, may put local businesses in a tough position, he added.

JXN Water’s funding shortfall includes money for debt payments. The utility warned in September that if it can’t make debt payments, the state would have to start diverting some of the city’s sales tax revenue. Horhn confirmed that was the case, but said Jackson was able to pay the $5 million owed by December. It’s unclear how much longer the city would be able to cover those payments without additional water funding.

The mayor went on to address what happens to the city’s water and sewer systems, which are both under the control of JXN Water, after the third-party manager steps aside. Horhn said he wants control of the systems to return to the city, and laid out a plan for an independent advisory board to run them separately from Jackson’s public works department.

His vision of the advisory board includes a majority of appointees from the Jackson mayor’s office. Because the city serves places outside of Jackson, such as Ridgeland and Byram, Horhn said a minority of appointees could come from the state or from those other municipalities. The board would then hire a third-party company to manage and operate the utilities.

Rep. Shanda Yates, an independent from Jackson and the committee’s co-chair, asked how Horhn’s plan would differ from lawmakers’ past attempts to put the city’s utilities under a separate utility authority. Those plans, the mayor said, gave the state a majority control. Moreover, a bill last year from Sen. David Parker, a Republican from Olive Branch, would have taken away Jackson’s ownership of the systems.

The governor would have likely vetoed Parker’s bill because it would have made the state responsible for Jackson’s debts, added Horhn, who served in the state Senate at the time.

Ted Henifin, who runs JXN Water, was invited to speak at Thursday’s hearing but couldn’t attend because of a “traveling conflict,” Yates said.

Both the mayor and Rep. Fabian Nelson, a Democrat whose district includes part of Jackson, criticized JXN Water over its handling of billing issues. The utility, for instance, doesn’t have a process to challenge bill amounts, Horhn said, adding his proposal would include an “appeals judge” to handle such cases.

“I have 10 constituents that have reached out to me in the last 24 hours with $37,000 water bills, $70,000 water bills, and they’ve all been told that it’s due to a leak,” Nelson said. “Every last one of them has had plumbers verify that it’s not a leak.”

Adding to the challenges, the utility doesn’t have anyone who customers can talk with in-person about billing issues, and constituents are having trouble getting answers through JXN Water’s phone helpline, he said.

“I have a lot of questions, but these are mainly geared toward JXN Water, which did not show up today,” Nelson went on to say. “This has to stop. We have people whose water is being turned off every single day.”

JXN Water told Mississippi Today earlier this month that it was shutting off about 1,000 accounts per week over nonpayment.

Yates said she would coordinate another time to bring Henifin before the committee. The chairwoman asked Horhn about a Jackson City Council vote earlier this month, which approved a resolution asking U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate to place control of the water and sewer systems back under the city. Council members echoed similar concerns from residents about communicating with the utility.

Wingate, though, has the ultimate say about when to turn over management of the systems, the mayor said. Henifin has projected he’ll be the third-party manager until 2027.

JXN Water is still awaiting a decision from the judge, who appointed Henifin to his role in 2022, regarding a proposed rate increase the utility first requested in April. The current water bill rates, even with perfect collections, wouldn’t be enough to fund operations and pay for the system’s debt, Henifin has said. The collection rate is now about 70%.

In a statement after Thursday’s hearing, the utility said it had told lawmakers ahead of time that Henifin couldn’t attend.

“The creation of JXN Water itself was born out of a period when collaboration and coordination around solutions for Jackson’s water system were lacking,” the statement said. “We welcome any dialogue aimed at strengthening the system for the people of Jackson and ensuring that future governance structures are grounded in transparency, accountability, and apolitical leadership.”

Correction 10/23/2025: This story has been updated to show Rep. Shanda Yates is an independent.