The Mississippi House of Representatives last week approved a bill to give $14.5 million to an economic development site near Tupelo that doesn&8217;t even have a prospect yet.

Compare that to a $15 million request Natchez and Adams County officials will be seeking for Rentech, an established prospect that would match the state funding with $10 million of its own money.

If the state Legislature is going to give that much money to a project that doesn&8217;t even exist, the Natchez funding should be a shoo-in.

At least we hope so.

But we saw last year how politics twisted a Natchez request for funding into a pork barrel project.

State officials &8212; especially Gov. Haley Barbour &8212; need to be briefed, and quickly, on how solid the Rentech project is and how important it is for our community. Rentech has a new technology, but the company has been testing it for over two decades &8212; and it has proven financial backers behind it.

Natchez may not be in one of the fastest growing areas of the state, but we&8217;re never going to get ahead if state officials don&8217;t support the opportunities we attract.

We hope lawmakers soon see how important this project &8212; and its potential jobs and investment &8212;

are for the Natchez community. They need to show their support for southwest Mississippi.