A city lives and breathes off its tax base. It’s what makes ultra conservatives cringe and flaming liberals smile.

But the reality is that we’re somewhere in the middle. We recognize that a city, by its nature, requires funds to operate and among the only ways to do so is through taxes.

For the City of Natchez, those taxes, particularly sales taxes, have been on the rise in the last couple of years.

Through this month, sales tax collections for the past 12 months are up by approximately $150,000 over the same period a year ago.

That’s impressive and appreciated.

The growth is likely a factor of several things including a better effort to market our community to tourists, who bring outside dollars to town.

But the increased sales tax dollars also may show a slightly improved economic forecast for local businesses, too.

Big sales tax dollars are generated when people buy things here. So think next time before you drive out of town to buy a car or go clothes shopping and ask yourself — can I purchase this locally?

If so, we urge you to do so because increasing local purchases will go a long way toward helping our city out.

Things in Natchez — at least sales-tax-wise — appear to be on the rise.

That’s great news, but only if we can reinvest that money to improve our community’s quality of life or ultimately reduce taxes elsewhere in the city.