Williamsport City Council members have weighed in recently on the analysis done on the city 2026 budgetary deficit estimated to be at least $3 million to $4.6 million.

Public Financial Management (PFM), a Philadelphia-based financial management firm, offered the sobering news and will bring five or so big ticket recommendations in late September on actions the city can take to close the gap.

“We anticipated that we were coming to this,” Council President Adam Yoder said following the first PFM report on July 24.

“This has kind of validated that it is here, unfortunately,” he said.

“I’m eager to really see what the process yields in bringing forward different tools,” he said.

Yoder at the time then encouraged the rest of the council to have a conversation with the professionals at PFM.

He said he did just that several weeks before the July 24 meeting.

Yoder said he not only learned a lot, but he found the dialogue really engaging in the remote session.

There were some nuggets of wisdom that came out of that that would be very useful, he noted.

Gordon Mann, PFM managing director, said the city can anticipate the firm returning in late September with five big steps its officials could take to close the projected 2026 budget deficit.

“Four you don’t like,” he said. “Maybe three you don’t like but we will talk about what each one of those means, the pros and cons so that you start to have that in the back of your minds before the budget process.”

The final report is likely to be released a little before the 2026 budget meetings.

“But it almost does not matter because once we give you the ideas we will work with you through the budget process,” Mann said.

Officials can anticipate a multi-page report (150 pages and continued guidance from the consultants.

Councilwoman Liz Miele, chair of the city finance committee, observed how she and council members were right when they were saying for a while the city was going to meet this moment.

She noted how the council would hopefully be observing the 2024 audit by now and the city is finished with the 2022 audit.

“I am hopeful that some of these numbers will smooth out a little bit, as we approach the end of the auditing processes,” Miele said.

“Me too,” Mann replied.

“Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen by the end of this budget year, which is when we desperately need your advice,” Miele said.

Miele asked Jamie Livermore, city Director of Finance, if there was hope that the 2023 audit would be completed soon to bring the city one year closer.