The bottom began falling out of the global economy one year ago. It kept falling until March.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett described the global economic meltdown of the last year as “economic Pearl Harbor.”

And most people felt under surprise attack from almost all sides.

Indeed the foundations of our economy were shaken. But Americans made do — mostly. We’ve adapted and we appear to be coming out of the other side of this just fine.

But holding on wasn’t easy or fun. Many of us curbed personal spending. Businesses made tough decisions just to stay afloat.

Ironically, though, one entity seems stuck in its flawed way of thinking — the City of Natchez.

Sales tax receipts are down, overspending requires borrowing against future tax receipts and little has been done to truly fix the city’s spending problems.

So have city leaders made the tough decisions necessary to get city spending in line with reasonable expectations of future tax receipts? Nope.

With its head buried in the proverbial sand, the city plans on putting the burden on the taxpayers instead of actually governing by taking advantage of a fluke property tax assessment change to effectively raise taxes on city residents and businesses.

Passively raising taxes allows the city to sidestep the tough issues — at least until the next panicked run to the bank when the plan to “get by” runs aground.

Shouldn’t we be rigged to run smoothly in the months ahead, not just “get by?”

City leaders should reduce their millage rate to a level that keeps the overall taxes coming in at the same level as last year. It’s the only fair thing to do to a people who have been attacked economically for months.