Gov. Haley Barbour addressed a packed room of business leaders,public officials and economic developers Wednesday during theBrookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce Quarterly MembershipBreakfast at Western Sizzlin.

Tailoring his speech to his audience, Barbour spoke abouteconomic development, job creation and the successes in those areasduring his term of office.

The governor, who is seeking re-election to a second term, saidwhen he took office he had to determine how to reverse an economicdevelopment program that had lost 38,000 jobs and 22 percent of thestate’s manufacturing capabilities in four years.

“Mississippi had the worst record in the nation in losingmanufacturing jobs,” Barbour said.

The first obstacle the governor chose to tackle was to make amore hospitable environment for businesses in the state throughtort reform.

“The first year of my term wasn’t pretty, but we passed the mostcomprehensive tort reform in history,” Barbour said.

The governor said the reform resulted in a 90 percent decline inlawsuits against doctors and a 30 percent decline in medicalmalpractice insurance premiums alone by the end of the nextyear.

“Tort reform worked,” Barbour said. “It’s helped us in growingour economy.”

The governor said the state also had to re-examine its strengthsand redesign its future development opportunities.

“Our economic incentives had been geared toward chasingmanufacturing jobs. Two years into my term we began to retoolthat,” Barbour said. “Economic incentives have to be aimed at thetypes of jobs being created.”

However, the state still had to address a $720 million budgetshortfall, which accounted for 20 percent “under the water” of a$3.6 billion general budget, he said.

The shortfall was having a detrimental effect on industryrecruiting because prospects had to consider whether the state wascapable of meeting its incentive promises, the governor said.

“Businesses are afraid of a state making promises it can’t keepand they won’t locate here if they believe we can’t meet thosepromises,” Barbour said.

When the Legislature adjourned last week, the state had a $70million surplus without raising taxes, he said.

“We didn’t have a shortfall because we tax too much, it’sbecause we spend too much,” Barbour said.

Despite cutbacks to curb spending, the governor said the statefully funded education for the first time since 2003, increased thewages of state employees and teachers and strengthened the state’slaw enforcement agencies.

Barbour said community colleges have seen a funding increase of30 percent in the past four years, which more than made up for theloss of 16 percent in funding during the previousadministration.

“We have made up what they lost and tried to bring them back towhere they ought to be,” he said.

Community colleges, with their emphasis on workforce jobtraining, are an important element in Mississippi’s emergingeconomic strength. In addition to increasing funding for thecolleges themselves, however, the amount of funding for workforcetraining programs has doubled in the past four years, he said.

The combination of those factors was a key element in the recentannouncement that Toyota would locate a manufacturing plant in BlueSprings.

Mississippi will likely have more people employed this year thanat any time in the state’s history, Barbour said.

The governor also addressed local concerns during a brief opensession.

Mayor Bob Massengill asked for the governor’s support to securecluster lighting at the Interstate 55 and Brookway Boulevardinterchange.

Barbour said he would do what he could, but added that the cityprobably would not benefit from any involvement by him indiscussions with the Mississippi Department of Transportation andthe state’s elected transportation commissioners.

“They don’t work for me and they make it very plain they don’twork for me,” he said.

District Three Supervisor Nolan Earl Williamson also asked forthe governor’s support. Williamson asked the governor toinvestigate the possibilities of revamping the distribution ofstate bridge monies.

Under present distribution practices, each county receives ashare of $20 million allocated annually to bridge replacementprojects based on population, the supervisor said. Many counties donot use those funds while others exhaust their funding eachyear.

“Some counties are not using that money – they’ve never even putin a bridge,” Williamson said. “Not to be greedy, but we could usethat money.”

Barbour said his staff looked into that policy three years agoand suggested it be modified, but found directors were “veryentrenched in that distribution plan” and were not open tochange.

District 92 Rep. Dr. Jim Barnett was invited to the podium amida standing ovation to bid goodbye. He is retiring after 16 years inthe Legislature.

The lawmaker used his time at the podium to publicly endorse hisfellow Republican.