If you weren’t keeping up, you could have missed it Tuesday.

Faster than I ever thought possible, the city government started moving.

After months of bemoaning a failing budget, weeks of making suggested cuts and close to three hours of an agonizingly long meeting, changes started coming.

First, the Natchez Board of Aldermen approved making changes to the amounts city employees pay for health care deductibles and co-pays.

Then, the majority agreed to take a big step toward privatizing grass cutting and potentially saving $200,000.

Finally, the board approved cutting its own pay and that of the three other elected officials in the city.

Bing, bang, boom. And just like that, I felt like our city might actually make it.

Let’s face it, for anyone who has paid half a mind’s attention to the city budget in the last year, it wasn’t easy to be positive about the future.

The city is in a nasty cycle of borrowing against future revenues, but worse than that, the current leaders had recognized the problem but seemed unwilling or not capable of making the tough decisions needed to fix it.

Every meeting that passed without a budget-cutting decision left me shaking my head about the future.

Two weeks ago, the city had only $7,000 in the bank. I know teenagers who have more than that saved from their babysitting gigs.

But a few quick — but not argument free — decisions Tuesday started the ball rolling.

Mayor Jake Middleton, who has been saying for weeks that the budget would survive in the long run, finally revealed some semblance of a plan to actually get there.

Middleton acknowledged himself, and I’ll echo, that the plan isn’t final or perfect. But it’s something.

The reality, though, is that once the ball starts rolling it can’t be easily stopped.

Three decisions won’t be enough to create a rainy day fund that Middleton hopes to have in three years. More cuts will be needed.

Some city employees are likely going to have to lose their jobs.

No one likes that, but the greater good is more important for us all.

Middleton said Tuesday he feels previous administrations used one-time funds to create long-term expenditures — like salaries.

Those salaries simply can’t stick around if the city hopes to be fiscally responsible.

And even though it makes us taxpayers feel better, Tuesday’s cut to elected official pay is a very, very tiny drop in the bucket.

The cut will only save $34,966, that’s essentially one person’s salary. Only one.

And City Clerk Donnie Holloway said after the meeting that another $500,000 loan will have to come before the close of the fiscal year — the end of September — if the city hopes to make payroll that month.

The budget is still bleeding.

And though the ball is rolling, the bumps in the road are yet to come.

Our aldermen must remain vigilant as budget watchdogs, and they must be prepared to make decisions no one will like.

As Alderman Mark Fortenbery said Tuesday, you should be an alderman for a love of the city not for money, and — I’ll add — not for love or fame.

Julie Cooper is the managing editor of The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or julie.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.