Alabama’s legislature will go into special session in November to enact laws for Jefferson County – its largest and home of Birmingham – to refinance $3.14 billion in sewer debt that threatened the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy.
The Jefferson County Commission voted Sept. 16 to approve a conceptual settlement that will allow it to refinance $2.05 billion, charge single-digit rate hikes for users, mandate sewer hookups for new construction and create a governmental utility service corporation (GUSC) to manage and finance the system until the debt is repaid.