Throughout any fiscal year — July 1 to June 30 for Washington — city residents and city property owners complain about how the City Washington spends money on this project or doesn’t spend money on that matter.

That’s what Americans, North Carolinians and Washingtonians do — complain about how levels of government spend money. They’ve been doing it since the colonies were founded. They’ll be doing it 100 years from now.

It would be wonderful — and surprising — if 100 city residents would show up at the annual public hearing on the proposed city budget. Those 100 residents equate to 1 percent of the city’s rough population of 10,000 people.

Usually, public hearings on the city’s proposed budgets draw less than 10 people. The public hearing on the proposed city budget for the 2017-2018 fiscal year drew four speakers: three voicing support for funding for Brown Library, and the other speaker asking the City Council to not reduce the funding for improvements to the city’s soccer complex included in the proposed 2017-2018 budget.

Where were those city residents with concerns about drainage and flooding issues in their neighborhoods? Where were those city residents and local organizations wanting the city to help pay for Wi-Fi in the downtown/waterfront area? No one showed up to urge the City Council to adopt a budget that ensures a new police station will be built as soon as possible.

Lots of taxpayers like to complain about the city’s decisions on spending the tax dollars they pay. Sadly, few of those taxpayers attend budget hearings to provide their views on how their tax dollars should be spent. When taxpayers provide that input, it lends weight to their complaints when they make those complaints. City taxpayers must speak up when it concerns spending their tax dollars. Doing so puts pressure on the elected officials to do what taxpayers, and voters, want done.

Four people speaking up at a budget hearing is a travesty. A next year’s budget hearing, 40 people should show up and voice their views. The next year, 400 people should do the same.

The city is spending your tax dollars. You have a role — make that a duty — in determining how those dollars are spent.