Sometimes squeaking by only by the skin of your teeth is good enough. That’s what happened last week as the City of Natchez managed to end the fiscal year without having to borrow more money.

Last week, as the fiscal calendar was flipped to a new year, city leaders celebrated a bit, and rightfully so.

Apparently, the cuts made months before — and they admit a little luck didn’t hurt either — helped the financially strapped city avoid having take out another tax anticipation loan which had become a rather routine, end-of-year practice.

In July, things looked fairly bleak and aldermen approved authorizing a loan of $650,000, but as of Friday, none of that money had been used.

We applaud the city’s work to stop what had become a bad habit.

The mayor, aldermen and city clerk all warn that celebrating still may be premature, though. Although the fiscal year is passed, the financial challenges facing the city remain.

We applaud the short-term good news, however, and encourage aldermen and the mayor to continue looking at every possible way to save taxpayer funds in the months ahead.