Leaders look to gain new ‘momentum’

Published 12:00 am Monday, May 9, 2005

NATCHEZ &045; Business leaders from throughout Mississippi came to Natchez Friday to rally support for Momentum Mississippi, an incentive package they said will help to keep companies in the state and improve overall economic development for cities and counties.

Legislation to establish the program failed to pass in the regular 2005 legislative session but is expected to be included in a special session that Gov. Haley Barbour may call as early as mid May.

John Junkin of Natchez, chairman of the Southwest Mississippi Committee for Momentum Mississippi, drew a geographical outline of his area of the state and said about 25 members of the Legislature have constituents in the region. &uot;Only one of them is here,&uot; he said, referring to Rep. Sam Mims of McComb, a Republican.

Email newsletter signup

&uot;These legislators need to hear not from just you but from your employees, the folks who live down the street from them, the people who go to church with them. If we don’t do it now, we may not have another chance.&uot;

Mims said he has supported the legislation from the beginning and hopes to have a chance to cast a vote for it during the special session.

&uot;This legislation is very important to the state of Mississippi and even more important to Adams County and Southwest Mississippi, giving economic development officials other tools to attract industries and helping existing industries to grow.&uot;

Momentum Mississippi is based on recommendations made by Blueprint Mississippi, said Anthony Topazi, president and CEO of Mississippi Power Co.

Blueprint Mississippi was the result of months of traveling throughout the state to find out what could be done to give communities a better chance to compete for jobs in today’s markets.

&uot;Many of the recommendations are not new,&uot; Topazi said. &uot;We as a group said we must have a sustainable effort to get these things done.&uot;

Momentum Mississippi was created to do that &045; to serve as a tool for implementing 11 key priorities that can help the state’s economy move forward, he said.

Those goals include strengthening the state’s business image, enhancing the competitiveness of the legal environment, better preparing children for school, diversifying and improving the state’s economic base and increasing support for existing businesses.

The Momentum Mississippi package of legislation is &uot;not the governor’s legislation, not the lieutenant governor’s, not the speaker’s,&uot; Topazi said. &uot;It’s the business community’s bill, what thousands around the state have said we need to do to move forward.&uot;

The legislation will help existing industries to become more competitive and expand, he said. It will attract high-tech firms and data processing centers by offering incentives that are non-existent today.

&uot;Our expectations are too low if we think our growth has been good,&uot; Topazi said. He showed figures indicating the state’s economy grew by 11.4 percent between 1993 and 2003 as compared to the entire South at 18.3 percent in the same period.

&uot;And if you take out gaming and Nissan, our growth rate would have been less than 4 percent,&uot; he said.

Urging those attending to help lobby legislators in favor of Momentum Mississippi, he said, &uot;We need face-to-face conversations with your legislators,&uot; he said.

&uot;We have heard no substantive issues about this bill being a problem.&uot;

Proposed changes would include allowing growth industries to take part in job incentives. That would include industries such as call centers and data processing centers.

Other changes would be creating a $20 million bond program, carefully administered and accessible to all counties and cities in the state for economic growth incentives.

George Schloegel, president of Hancock Bank, has spent time on the state’s workforce development efforts. He emphasized that the workforce development program &uot;is not a partisan effort. It’s about the men and women in Mississippi who either want a job or want a better job.&uot;

Last year, the state sent $18 million back to the federal government &uot;because we didn’t have enough jobs to put people in,&uot; Schloegel said.

Momentum Mississippi is not partisan, he said. &uot;The only thing partisan about it is that we’re partisan about Mississippi. Go see members of the Legislature and tell them how important this is for existing businesses and industries in Mississippi.&uot;

John McCullouch, president of BellSouth Mississippi operations, said the group lobbying for

Momentum Mississippi listened as they went around the state.

&uot;We heard loud and clear that we need to give existing businesses and industries incentives,&uot; McCullouch said. &uot;We expect the incentive package to help our business climate image around the country.&uot;

Michael Ferdinand, executive director of the Natchez Adams County Development Authority, said he finds it disheartening to have existing businesses come to him for help. &uot;There is little we can do.&uot;

Momentum Mississippi could change that, he said. &uot;To me, it is tools in the chest to encourage existing growth. And it can make businesses we’re most likely to attract receive better incentives.&uot;