MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. (WWJ) – “Enough is enough” for Macomb County communities footing the bill for Highland Park’s disputed water bill debt.
That’s what Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel said Wednesday on behalf of several communities in the county who are fed up with paying extra because Highland Park hasn’t paid its “fair share.”
Highland Park allegedly owes more than $50 million to the Great Lakes Water Authority, a debt that has been disputed for a decade. GLWA officials say Highland Park has paid only about 1% of its water charges since tapping into the GLWA supply on an “emergency basis” in 2012.
Neighboring communities were told they’d only have to help pay the disputed Highland Park debt for a few months. Instead, leaders in Macomb County say their communities have paid about $13.5 million to pick up the slack for a decade now.
Hackel and other community leaders gathered Wednesday at the Macomb County Administration Building to voice their concerns and take a stand.
Much like a group of communities in Wayne County earlier this month, Macomb County municipalities are now threatening to not pay the portion of the bill that covers Highland Park’s debt, or just let it go into an escrow account.
Officials, like St. Clair Shores Mayor Kip Walby, say they often get questions from their residents about why they’re picking up the slack.
“I pay my bill, why doesn’t someone else pay their bill?” Walby said he is often asked.
Hackel says the aim of Macomb County taking a stand isn’t to figure out how to “turn off the water for anyone.” Rather, they’re “trying to resolve an issue that has been brought up many a time.”
Hackel, along with Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller and other officials, have sent a letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, asking for the state “for some relief, for some involvement, to try to solve this long standing concern or issue that’s happening.”
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