SAN ANTONIO - With gas at $4 per gallon, perhaps a Prius plant would have been better for San Antonio, but Toyota Motor Corp.'s three-month production halt at its new Tundra plant isn't as bad as it could have been.

The 2,000 full-time workers who make the pickup trucks will continue to be paid during the downtime expected to start in August and end in November, when production of the 2009 model begins. The workers will undergo training or help with improvements at the plant during the lull.

"This is not an inexpensive proposition to pay them for no production," Toyota spokesman Michael Goss said Thursday, but the company wants workers ready when production resumes. "We have a long-term optimistic view of the truck. It's going to take some time to get through this economic downturn."

Sales of the full-size truck have been hampered by the wobbly economy and high gas prices.

The San Antonio plant, which opened in November 2007, currently makes about two-thirds of the company's Tundras with the other third manufactured in Princeton, Ind. Under a reorganization announced Thursday, all Tundras will be made in San Antonio starting next year.

That will allow a new Mississippi plant to begin making the popular hybrid Prius, while the compact Highlander SUV will be made in Princeton.

It's not clear yet how the production halt at the San Antonio Tundra plant will affect the 21 onsite suppliers and their 2,000 workers. The suppliers were told late Wednesday of the shutdown plans, and they're still determining what to do, Goss said.

County Judge Nelson Wolff acknowledged it's been a bumpy couple of weeks for San Antonio, which saw AT&T Inc. unexpectedly move its headquarters to Dallas two weeks ago.

"There's no silver lining on that," Nelson said of AT&T's decision to move 700 jobs to Dallas.

But with the Tundra plant shutdown, Wolff said Toyota was handling it about the best the community could hope for. Toyota workers, at least, won't lose their jobs.

"It could've been a lot worse," he said.