Property taxes and county spending are issues that weigh on the minds of Lycoming County voters.

They weigh on the minds of candidates for commissioner as well.

Republican nominee and incumbent Commissioner Scott Metzger noted that property taxes are “the only revenue source, really, that the county has.”

“We’ve been able to keep our taxes level at the county level for the past four years,” Metzger said, after noting school districts have unfortunately had to increase property tax rates.

He pledged to continue to work with state legislators to emphasize the importance of property tax relief.

“Seniors, especially, are being burdened by these taxes going up every year,” Metzger said.

Metzger expressed a preference for broad property tax relief rather than initiatives that target specific demographics of homeowners.

“Everybody shares the same services in county government,” he said.

He said government needs to take a hard look at consolidating services to reduce spending, and added that the commissioners have canceled leases and relocated the Joinder Board and mental health services to county-owned properties.

“That is going to save us money,” he said, which can be used to better fund mental health services.

“They have not been increased at the state level since 2012,” Metzger said. “We need to increase the mental health spending.”

More generally, however, Metzger would like to see spending cut.

“Government doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem,” Metzger said.

“Reassessment can help in some areas and maybe hurt in other areas,” Republican nominee Marc Sortman said. “You’ve got to be very cautious of the way you would handle that.”

“The biggest thing the county government can do to help with any type of property tax relief is start watching where the spending is going,” he said. “Stop some of the spending.”

Sortman would also favor pursuing property tax relief broadly.

“During my tenure at Loyalsock Township we lowered property taxes twice,” Sortman, who serves as a supervisor for Loyalsock Township, said. “Across the board. … What that did for Loyalsock is brought everything in. We got more housing, we got more businesses.”

He said with the increase in development the township brought in more revenue than it did under the higher tax rate.

“I’m sure there are plenty of programs that could be reduced,” Sortman said of spending cuts.

He noted that better management can make some community programs and assets less costly, citing Loyalsock Township’s swimming pool as an example. Years before, he said, the pool lost money. Rather than close down the pool, more detail-oriented leadership saw the pool start to break even, so the community could keep the asset without it being a drain on taxpayers.

Democratic nominee Denitra Moffett cautioned that the results of reassessment — the option most available to county government to affect property tax bills — would be unpredictable.

“Achieving property tax relief is never going to appease everyone across the board,” Moffett said.

She noted bringing more housing into Lycoming County would spread the tax burden further, as well as being necessary in and of itself.

“We have to tackle that on the forefront first,” Moffett said. “The population decline itself is going to be the root of a lot of the problems that we have.”

Moffett believes property tax relief should be targeted to elderly homeowners.

“Our elderly people are struggling now,” she said. “Probably more than they ever have.”

She shared reservations about tax relief for commercial properties, noting the number of vacant and seemingly abandoned commercial sites around the city and county. She wants lawmakers to carefully assess whether tax relief for industrial properties will “trickle down.”

She praised the successes of Geo Reentry Services and other county programs, and said she would like to see funding for mental health services and intervention programs for youth increased.

“They’re doing good things in the county,” Moffett said of Geo Reentry Services.

She cited Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs as an example of programs in other communities that keep young people from poor choices.

Moffett singled out the ongoing legal dispute between the county commissioners and the county controller’s office as unnecessary spending, citing her education and background as a paralegal.

“I think that is a waste of money,” she said. “The law is the law and I feel like, if we’re going to go by what the county code is, which says she is supposed to have the ledger — they’ve lost three times. There is no need to keep appealing your loss.”

Democratic nominee Mark Mussina said that when commissioners and the public consider property taxes and property tax relief, they also need to be mindful that some assistance from federal and state sources is temporary.

“We have to make sure that we don’t eliminate things to our own detriment,” he said. “So much of the funding that we get for this county comes from outside of the county and when that money stops or if that money stops, we still have to be able to run the county.”

Mussina also noted the obstacle of non-profit entities being exempt from property taxes. He said he believes some businesses classify as non-profit entities to take advantage of such exemptions. Beyond the local level, he cited the National Football League as an example.

“There is money out there that could be taxed and we have to look at reasons why we’re not taxing it,” he said.

He said that while he understands fears about reassessment, that there are properties that are skirting their share of the burden.

“If we taxed those houses properly, then the lower income and the people whose houses have not increased that much would not be affected,” Mussina said.

Mussina joined Moffett in criticizing the ongoing litigation between the commissioners and controller and calling for more activities for young people, and he also joined Metzger and Moffett in calling for increased spending on mental health care.

“To cut spending, the county could stop suing itself,” he said. “I think we’re up to a quarter of a million dollars in lawsuits over legalese, and when you talk to people … they just don’t get it.”

He noted veterans and children especially would benefit from increased spending on mental health services.

“We’re going to have to be more proactive with that,” Mussina said of mental health care for young people grappling with social media. “Because they’re dealing with something that quite frankly when we were kids we didn’t have to deal with. … When we were kids (bullying) stopped when kids got home from school. Now it can be 24/7.”