Natchez aldermen are wise to begin carefully questioning the city’s upcoming financial obligations connected to ongoing capital projects and related matching grants.

Several weeks ago, aldermen expressed frustration at surprise payment requests being made at a time during which the city doesn’t have the cash flow to fund the payments.

The challenge is clearly a lack of communication. In almost each case the city’s board of aldermen previously signed off on the projects in question, but in most cases, apparently, no one bothered to consider the city’s financial obligation.

Many of the grants the city works hard to acquire bring with them the requirement to either pay a matching amount or pay the invoices first and be reimbursed at a later date.

As a result the city has found itself pondering a loan to help it pay for its obligations.

We’re baffled that the city would consider taking on debt at a time when sales tax receipts have been on a decline for five months in a row.

Aldermen are planning a work session meeting next week to discuss a plan for moving forward.

We urge the city to meet any pending obligations, even if doing so requires the city to cut spending in other areas of city government.

But we also hope aldermen will stop short of taking out a loan just ahead of the city elections.

Aldermen must get their hands and heads around city finances to avoid further hiccups. City taxpayers deserve to have their financial interests taken seriously so the last-minute surprises need to end.