Legislators representing Natchez are supportive of the $323.9 million incentives package passed last week to support construction of a Toyota plant in Mississippi, but success in the northeast will not slow their continued push for southwestern Mississippi, they said.

The bill sailed through both houses of the Legislature last week. Gov. Haley Barbour signed the bill on Friday, paving the way for the $1.3 billion assembly plant to be built near Tupelo.

“I was very happy and very proud to pass the bond bill for Toyota,” said Rep. Sam Mims, R-McComb, one of four legislators who spoke at the Monday breakfast forum sponsored by the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce.

“But I was a little irritated when I heard a House leader talking about the Delta being underserved,” Mims said. “We also are underserved. We need to make sure the leaders in the House and Senate know that southwest Mississippi matters. We can’t give up just because we have Rentech.”

In the 2006 session, the Legislature provided $15 million in incentives for Rentech, a coal-to-liquid manufacturing company that has plans to construct a $1 billion plant in Natchez to be on line within about four years.

The bill gives the company until July 1, 2007, to meet Mississippi Development Authority financial requests. If that happens, site development can begin.

Rep. Angela Cockerham, D-McComb, said the Toyota deal shows that big things can happen for Mississippi.

“What you see happening in northeast Mississippi can happen in southwest Mississippi,” Cockerham said. “It can happen here. We have the infrastructure here.”

Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, said the good working relationship among the legislative representatives of southwest Mississippi and other officials of state and local governments bodes well for future economic development.

“We worked very well together with Rentech,” Johnson said. “That’s the way government officials ought to work together.”

Rentech by no means is the only prize he and others seek for the Natchez area, Johnson said. “They understand in the Legislature that we’re not satisfied.”

With Rentech, government officials and others saw clearly how important the Mississippi River is to economic development, Johnson said.

Education has an important link to economic development, Johnson said. He has sponsored a bond bill that will help Alcorn State University make some necessary improvements, he said.

All legislators agreed the state budget has dominated the session so far. Sen. Bob M. Dearing said with revenues higher, “This has been an ask and you shall receive session.”

Dearing said the rising revenues have to do with rising state sales taxes. He cautioned, however, “I’ve seen these peaks before. We’ll be going down in the valleys again.”

Like Dearing, Mims believes strongly in setting aside the mandated 2 percent of revenues for the rainy day fund for the inevitable economic slowdown or catastrophe.

“We need to remember to be fiscally responsible,” Mims said. “We want to be sure we go through the budget process slowly and set aside the 2 percent for the rainy day fund.”