Lessons from Flint’s Water Crisis

Flint, Michigan, was bound to suffer some kind of disaster. The beleaguered city had fallen on hard times and cut back on infrastructure upkeep. City officials hoped that switching its water source from the Detroit system to the Flint River would save $5 million. Water managers, however, failed to treat the river’s notoriously corrosive water, which would have cost only $100. That’s a proximate cause of Flint’s tap-water fiasco. But driving the city’s cutbacks was another man-made error, according to Independent Institute Senior Fellow Lawrence J. McQuillan.

“Costly retirement benefits have squeezed spending on other services, resulting in penny-pinching on water,” McQuillan writes. How costly? Pension and retiree health benefits constitute one-third of the city’s general fund expenditures. Flint promised workers more benefits than it could afford after the recession took its toll on tax revenues, but its problems are far from over. It will cost an estimated $60 million or more to replace its lead-lined pipes.

“Beyond botched financial decisions and incompetence, Flint also teaches a lesson in liability,” McQuillan writes. “The sovereign-immunity shield makes it nearly impossible to sue successfully any government water official or water agency for wrong doing.” In contrast, a privatized water system would be held accountable and financially responsible. “About 73 million Americans rely on private water utilities,” McQuillan adds. “And all are more satisfied with their water service right now than Flint residents.”

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