Last week a number of local government leaders met with a few of the area’s representatives to talk through priorities for the new Legislature that convenes in January.

The group talked about four priorities:

4Refurbishing the Natchez Visitor Reception Center;

4Adding Natchez to the “to-go cup” legislation allowing alcoholic beverages to leave the premises of a bar or restaurant;

4Accepting partial payment of property tax payments;

4Using state transportation funds to help finish the North Natchez Drainage Project.

Suffice to say the list of our area’s wants and desires is underwhelming.

Two of the items probably make good business sense — both for the state and for Natchez.

Allowing payment of partial property tax is simply smart. Government would be wise to take a payment on the total debt. That just makes sense and needs to be addressed by the Legislature.

Adding Natchez to the relatively recent “to-go cup” law makes sense for local bars and restaurants as well. Whether or not one drinks alcohol or not, the sale and consumption of it is big business for Natchez. Passage of this makes sense economically for Natchez as well. If it passes, hopefully the city will put more resources into the Natchez Police Department to ensure those who are walking around with a drink do not attempt to drive while under the influence.

Asking the state to help refurbish the Natchez Visitor Reception Center is not warranted. The city owns the building — though given the city’s history of being ill prepared to handle building maintenance issues, the building would probably be in better hands if someone else owned the deed.

That said, the state is not responsible for underwriting the city’s financial woes.

Ditto for the North Natchez Drainage Project. It’s a valid project, but it’s lingered on for far too long because the city has had to effectively beg the state and feds for help to fund it. This is a basic infrastructure problem — one of dozens likely existing in any city as old as Natchez. The responsibility for that is not the state’s; it’s up to Natchez.

Over the past several decades, Natchez has become quite adept at finding and spending so called “other people’s money” — i.e., grant money.

That’s all fine and well for very unique projects or ones that sort of cross the line between city, state or federal responsibility. Fixing drainage in North Natchez is probably 20 years past due, but it’s not the state’s responsibility. It’s Natchez’s responsibility.

One of the area’s biggest needs — one that affects all aspects of our society — seems to have been unmentioned at the meeting to discuss priorities — education.

Natchez’s schools — along with the majority of others across Southwest Mississippi — are woefully underperforming others in the state.

The revolving door of sorts in the local public schools’ leadership position makes it clear that our area has been struggling to figure how just how we can make significant improvements to our education system.

That problem will not be fixed by money alone, however, our area, nay our region, needs more support from the state to help pull our students up by the bootstraps.

Education affects so many aspects of the community — work force, health care, crime … the list could go on and on.

Right now, the Natchez-Adams School District is trying to figure out how it might build some new school buildings — to replace the existing ones, many of which are more than 50 years

No question the district needs to build new buildings. Whether or not the district has the support of the community to approve a referendum — if one is ultimately necessary — remains in question.

My hope is that the future of education gets on all of our radar screens soon — from city, state and federal leaders down to John Q. Public.

Until we take education as seriously as we take college football, hunting or our own pet projects, our area of the country will continue to struggle.
Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.