[vineyardmike]

Every year, Mississippi the state takes money from the federal government. Money that they don’t earn through taxes levied. Every state of course does this, but Mississippi is pretty bad on a per person level and on a percent of total budget level. To cover existing budget shortfall they’d need to tax an extra 15% of income for the average resident (6k per person). For comparison California would need an extra $12 per person which is like 0.03% to cover their differences. That should set the scene for how cash strapped the state is.

Considering how dependent the state is on funding, it’s not crazy to imagine that the local municipalities would also be similarly dependent.

Jackson surely knows how to raise bonds. In Dec2021 their water and sewer bond rating was put in the “B” range (Baa) for their existing 200M in debt for the water system.

Mississippi likely just has no more money from their existing population available. And has likely started to run out of availability debt accessible.

Ps: The “rest of us” surely are suckers paying for it, but it looks like we always were. I’m in California and I’d raise my own taxes by $12 just be able to brag to red states that California takes less in “government handouts” than them. But it doesn’t matter. We’re all in one big national union working together to help each other. It doesn’t matter who is paying and who is getting re-elected - those residents need water. And fwiw, it’s not like the fed balances the budget. That’s just “free money” anyways.