It’s once again budget time for local governments, and that means important decisions about how your tax dollars are spent will be made.

Brookhaven officials are hosting several budget work sessions over the next couple weeks.

Throughout the month of August, on Tuesday and Thursday nights, the board will meet to work on the budget. The meetings are open to the public. They begin at 5:30 p.m. in the boardroom at the Lincoln County Government Complex. No votes are taken at these meetings, which can last several hours.

A warning: these are boring meetings. But they are incredibly important. Board members will decide the budgets of city departments like the fire and police departments. Those are services that directly impact you.

Lincoln County supervisors are also discussing budget matters at their public meetings. They will also decide how your tax dollars are spent.

Once these work sessions and meetings are over, these public bodies will vote. By that time, all the work is done so these are the meetings that should matter the most to the public.

Sure, we will report on these meetings in the newspaper but nothing replaces actually attending to see how your local government works. We encourage everyone to attend a budget meeting and weigh in on how your tax dollars are spent.