It’s always important to know what your government is doing. One of the best ways to find out how the government is spending your money and making decisions about how to allow development to proceed is by reading the public notices in your local newspaper.

Last year, the General Assembly adopted what is called a local bill that allowed three Wake County towns — Knightdale, Apex and Garner — to vote on an ordinance that would allow those towns to post public notices on their Web sites and skip posting them in the newspaper.

In Knightdale, town commissioners chose not to exercise that option fortunately.

Now, the General Assembly is proposing a law that would allow every town and county to adopt such an ordinance.

In Wendell, commissioners were scheduled to vote on a resolution supporting that bill Monday night.

That’s too bad.

Town officials don’t know how many people visit the town’s Web site. That means they have no idea how many people would have a chance to see those public notices.

One thing’s for sure. If that law passes, and local governments in eastern Wake County adopt an ordinance, the 17,000 homes that currently receive the Eastern Wake News wouldn’t read about what their town boards are up to.

Neither would the 8,000 or so people who visit our Web site each week.

For the sake of full disclosure, public notices and other legal advertising represent a revenue stream for this newspaper. But of greater concern for us is that government make a legitimate effort to shine light on the public’s business.

The public notice section of this or any other newspaper has become a place people know to turn to if they want to keep an eye on what their government is doing.

Removing public notices from a public organ like the newspaper will only make it more difficult for citizens to keep up with their government.

As of this writing, we don’t know if Wendell commissioners will adopt their resolution or not.

If they do, and the law passes, we hope they will show the same kind of restraint Knightdale commissioners did.