NATCHEZ &8212; &8220;We can&8217;t be up there all the time.&8221;

&8220;We,&8221; as in the city&8217;s mayor and aldermen; &8220;there,&8221; meaning the State Capitol.

With that reasoning from Mayor Phillip West, aldermen on Tuesday voted to pay up to $20,000 to hire a lobbyist to protect the city&8217;s interests at the statehouse during this legislative session.

Among the city&8217;s priorities: to make sure Rentech gets the $15 million it&8217;s asking for from the Mississippi Development Authority &8212; which would get the funds from the Legislature.

The Colorado-based fuel manufacturer would match the money with $10 million of its own, and that&8217;s just for starters.

It&8217;s estimated that building its proposed Adams County plant would cost $650 million but create 200 permanent and up to 1,500 construction jobs.

&8220;Not only that, but we want to see if we can get some gaming road money to help improve some of the roads we have downtown,&8221; West said.

According to the Mississippi Department of Transportation, the gaming road program was discontinued by the Legislature last year.

But another act of the Legislature could always change that, and West said the city is calling on state Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, to introduce a bill calling for such funds for Natchez roads.

It&8217;s not uncommon for mid-sized and large Mississippi cities to hire lobbyists to make their cases at the statehouse, said Nick Wilson of the Mississippi Municipal League in Jackson.

&8220;That&8217;s especially true if they have local and private legislation before the Legislature that year,&8221; Wilson said.

And a review of the Secretary of State&8217;s Web site reveals that last year, a total of nine cities hired state lobbyists: Biloxi, Gulfport, Holly Springs, Jackson, Meridian, Ocean Springs, Pascagoula, Ridgeland and Southaven.