Increased water fees in local communities this year will not include payment of the $21 million debt owed by the City of Highland Park to the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA).
Officials from GLWA attempted last year to increase water fees to the other 124 communities in the tri-county area which purchase water from the authority to compensate for the more than $21 million the City of Highland Park had failed to pay. That increase, subsequently withdrawn, was set to begin last year. The proposed increase prompted formal protests and threatened legal action from local officials claiming their communities should not be responsible for the Highland Park debt. The court upheld that argument and ruled that the debt was the responsibility of Highland Park.
That ruling was upheld by the Michigan Court of Appeals and last week, judges at the Michigan Supreme Court refused to hear another appeal from the City of Highland Park to reconsider the ruling. Michigan State Supreme Court judges noted in the statement refusing to hear the appeal, “… We are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this court.”
Highland Park was first sued by GLWA in 2014, accused of failing to comply with a 2009 agreement negotiated to address outstanding debt for several years of sewage service.
The debt continued to increase and in 2015, the Court of Appeals affirmed that Highland Park was responsible for the obligation.
Years of counterclaims and legal arguments followed, with Highland Park claiming the city had been overcharged and was not obligated to pay years of rate increases.
In response, GLWA proposed a significant increase in water costs to the other member communities in an effort to compensate for the more than $20 million in lost revenue. The local communities included Belleville, Canton Township, Inkster, City and Township of Northville, City and Township of Plymouth, Romulus, Wayne and Westland, all of which formally protested the increase as did other communities in both Macomb and Wayne counties.
Board members of the GLWA voted last year to cut $6.7 million related to the Highland Park water debt from overall rate increases slated to begin in July 2022. The move followed rejection from the suburban communities and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer about forcing the contested debt onto other water customers.
In February, the authority board of directors unanimously approved a 2.75 percent increase in wholesale water and sewerage water rates for the 2024 fiscal year starting July 1. The Highland Park debt was not included in those charges. Despite a court order, officials said that Highland Park is making only partial payment of less than 50 percent of the amount ordered by the court, so the unpaid debt continues to grow at about $3.5 million annually.
Some officials estimated that the mounting debt of Highland Park could be as much as $56 million as the fees for water continue to accrue.
Local officials predicted that state courts would be required to intervene and come to settlement terms of the outstanding obligation recognizing the current rulings which have excluded other member communities from responsibility for the Highland Park debt.
