Maybe we should threaten to shut off their water

S&WB is having trouble paying its own bills now.

The S&WB owes contractors almost $33 million in unpaid invoices. Officials didn’t say whether they would be able to make those payments anytime soon. Tens of millions of dollars of the agency’s reserves were poured into a spree of emergency spending after much of the city was flooded in August 2017.

As of November, the S&WB had only about 67 days of cash available, down from 227 days of cash a year earlier.

Korban said the issue of missed payments has become so bad recently that officials are now trying to persuade contractors to keep working, in some cases making partial payments here and there. “Some of our vendors are facing difficulties of their own by not getting paid,” Korban said. That could slow down progress on some projects or create the possibility of contractors “walking off the job,” he said.

It's been a while since we've heard anything about privatization but remember all of the dynamics that could lead us there are still in play.