Mississippi city increases water and sewer rates more than 16%
Published 5:58 am Monday, October 4, 2021
People in a southwestern Mississippi city will be paying higher bills for water and sewer service.
The McComb Board of Selectmen voted 4-2 Tuesday to increase the base rate for water and sewer by $12.41 a month, the Enterprise-Journal reported. That is about a 16.6% increase.
Effective Friday, the city’s new minimum bill is $86.88.
City Administrator David Myers proposed the increase as a solution to the water and sewer fund’s losses, which caused the city to struggle to repay loans from the state.
Myers said in a previous meeting that the city should have gradually raised its water rates to this level over a few years, but that never happened.
McComb officials had to approve a $1.5 million injection into the water and sewer fund from the general fund over the summer to keep up with loan repayments.
McComb has about 13,000 residents, and about 48% live in poverty, according to the Census Bureau.