They say you shouldn’t count your chickens before they are hatched, and organizers of a possible ESOP buyout of the Natchez International Paper mill have been careful not to raise our hopes too high.

But we’re glad to see that Natchez aldermen, Adams County supervisors and state leaders at least have their calculators out this week to figure out their contributions to the cause.

If the ESOP group can raise a whopping $63 million from private venture capitalists and commercial banks, the city and county would jointly issue $5 million in bonds for the project. Meanwhile, Gov. Ronnie Musgrove would call a special session to seek a $20 million loan from the state to the venture.

We can’t ignore the glaring caveat: That’s a lot of promises from politicians in the middle of and on the verge of an election year, promises hedged on a lot more money being raised by ESOP organizers who are tight-lipped on the subject.

But those promises also show potential investors what our governments will do for the projects; they show the former IP employees the lengths to which local support extends; and they show Natchez and Adams County residents that our elected leaders are behind this project.

We’ve still got our hopes that this deal will come through, and having state and local leaders behind the project will certainly help.