Flint city officials hope a new fund will help ease rising drinking water costs for city residents.
The city is using a million dollars left over from the American Rescue Plan Act.
Mayor Sheldon Neeley said the water stabilization fund should help keep Flint water bills lower into 2029.
“Water is just not a luxury. It’s a necessity,” said Neeley.
The mayor would like to reopen the city’s current contract with the Great Lakes Water Authority, or GLWA. The contract was signed back in 2017, in the wake of the city’s lead tainted tap water crisis. It runs through 2047.
Neeley blames the contract for ever rising water bills in Flint. He claims the cost of getting drinking water from GLWA has increased 12% percent in the past 12 months.
But the mayor insists he’s not trying to “villainize” GLWA.
“This is not about pointing the finger,” Neeley told reporters. “We’re just making obvious some of the impediments that we have in this community.”
A GLWA spokesperson points out there is a "reopener" process in the contract every four years.
As for the mayor’s claim that GLWA is responsible for a 12% increase in the cost of water in Flint, Nicolette Bateson, GLWA CFO and Treasurer, responded that is not accurate.
“Flint’s total charge for FY 2027 is $12.7 million, which reflects a water service charge increase of $695,000 (over the previous fiscal year) or 5.8 percent. This calculation is consistent with GLWA’s water charge methodology for all customer communities,” Bateson responded in a written statement.
Meanwhile, people in Flint continue to struggle to pay their water bills.
City Council member Judy Priestly said she hears the same complaints every week, “’Why is my water bill so high? This doesn’t make sense’….this is a concern.”
