George BOS withdraws from Ms Gulf Coast Region Utility

PRESS RELEASE from the George County Board of Supervisors
December 4, 2006

Today, the George County Board of Supervisors has adopted a resolution to dissolve the George County Utility Authority , which was created by The Mississippi Gulf Coast Region Utility Act [i.e., Senate Bill 2943, now codified as Mississippi Code Annotated, Section 49-17- 715] .
The George County Board of Supervisors has had concerns about the law from DayOne. None of the county elected officials in the six coastal counties was even told that the bill was being considered, until after the first draft had been submitted to the legislature for adoption. (If the law was such a great thing, then why did the powers-that-be try to sneak it into law?)
Fortunately , working together, the first bill was amended extensively, but the amended bill still had many provisions that we felt were bad.
Nevertheless, the legislature declined to delete George County from the law. Instead, the law gave the Board of Supervisors the power to opt-out of the local board, so long as the County accepted no money under the law, created no debt under the law, and exercised its rights before J anuary 1, 2007.
The Board has always felt that the money to be distributed under the law "\ should have been done through the Mississippi Development Authority , with each city and county submitting a request for a grant to accomplish what the elected officials thought was best for the city and county .The Board did not think that a group of outsiders, who were not answerable to the people, should be deciding what was best for George County or any other county .
The Board also thought that the City of Lucedale should be allowed, independently, to join the Gulf Coast Region Utility Authority , if the leaders of Lucedale thought it would be in the best interest of the City .The Board has never wanted to stand in the way of the City's right to make its own decision. The powers- that-be, however, would not let that be done.
As a result, the Board has spent months reading the law, attending meetings to discuss the law, and sending representatives to attend meetings concerning the law, to gather all of the information which it could about the law. This has been the most difficult issue which this Board has faced during this term of office.
In the end, the Board could not let this new law be imposed on the people of George County .
The resolution which has been adopted today sets forth many of the concerns which the Board has about the proposed law. A few of those concerns are worth repeating here:
1. THE NEW LA W CREATES A PERMANENT BUREAUCRACY. You have a regional board (WHICH SHALL DECIDE WHA TIS BEST FOR ALL SIX COUNTIES) which has to be paid by the counties who are in the authority and then each County has a local utility board with sweeping powers and duties. The law is 49 pages long.
2. THE LOCAL UTILITY BOARD HAS SWEEPING POWERS. The local utility board will have countywide jurisdiction over every water and sewer system, inside and outside the city limits, and over all storm water in the county .
3. THE LOCAL UTILITY BOARD HAS SWEEPING DUTIES. The local board has the power and the duty and the responsibility to exercise general supervision over the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of water, wastewater, and storm water systems in the County , including private water systems and municipal systems. Further, the Board shall adopt rules and regulations concerning same. Because the law mandates these actions, the Board would be answerable to no one.
4. THE LOCAL BOARD WOULD CONTROL EVERY NEW BUILDING IN THE COUNTY. Every building or development which is built hereafter and which requires a water, wastewater, or storm water system must be approved by the local board.
5. THE COSTS OF ALL OF THIS WOULD BE PAID BY" CUSTOMERS, NOT' BY T AXES. All costs under the law would be paid by user fees, not by ad valorem taxes. This means small business owners and homeowners would pay the tab for the new law.
6. RURAL WATER ASSOCIATIONS IN GEORGE COUNTY SUPPORT DISSOL VING THE LOCAL UTILITY BOARD. Rural water associations in the six coastal counties do not like the new law and will go to the legislature in January to get the law amended, so that any rural water association may opt-out of the law's control.
7. THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT WE SHALL GET ANY MONEY. and there is no guarantee that the money which is given will build what is proposed. Everything is subject to change, and no one will tell you who has the final decision. Moreover, of the $500 million talked about, George County gets the smallest share. We are one of six counties, but we would get only 1/50th of money.
8. WHAT IS PROPOSED, WE DO NOT NEED. Outsiders are making the decisions on how the federal money will be spent, and one has to wonder who is influencing them. For example, last week there was a hearing held in Jackson County on this new law. Pascagoula, Moss- Point, Gautier, and Ocean Springs all pointed out that no money was given to them for what they really need. The same is true for George County .This is because, rather than letting the County and the City of Lucedale make the decision, some unknown bureaucrats have made the decision for us. We don't want it and we don't need it.
9. IF WE DID NOT GET OUT NOW, WE COULD NEVER GET OUT. If the Board did not act before January 1, 2007, George County would be under this law forever .
Many people already understand that this law would not be good for George County. Some people do not, but, given time and given a close watch on what happens in the other five counties under this law, the Board beli~ves that most people will see that the Board has made the right decision.