Show us some money.

Everywhere I go in Natchez I hear about the economy.

But wait, we have a new prison, and we built a multimillion dollar sewer line to it. Oh, yeah, there are no prisoners, therefore there are no jobs and no income from this 15-mile sewer line the city built.

Who is going to pay for that? How is that going to effect the city budget? Oh well, I guess taxes or fees or millage will have to be raised to pay for it.

The economy in and around Natchez has been down for several years. The local officials cannot blame recent national economic woes for this. What’s going on with Rentech? Have they hired workers? Are they purchasing locally for suppliers?

What about the other two gambling boats that were proposed to be up and going by now? What happened there? How many jobs have we received from these projects?

Some of the taxpayer employees — elected officials — recently went to Washington, D.C. Did they bring anything beneficial back, or was it just their expense account bills?

Maybe I am missing something, but I think something is missing here in Natchez.

Taxpayers are not getting their money’s worth from their elected officials.

But then, that’s nothing new.

W. Byron Garrity Jr.

Natchez resident