Eric Beiter, a Republican incumbent on Williamsport City Council, is seeking to regain one of those three open seats in the Nov. 4 general election.

Beiter, who is vice president of council, and a former mayoral candidate, received two similar questions to the other candidates running in the race.

What do you see as ways to increase revenue and lower expenses as the city faces a projected deficit to be at least $3 million or higher in 2026?

“Williamsport, like many rural Pennsylvania cities, is saddled with structural budget issues rooted in a declining tax base, rising operating costs, and a tax code imposed by the state legislature that doesn’t keep up with operating costs,” Beiter, vice president of council, said.

“On the revenue side, a solution that gives us the strongest opportunities for success has two parts: home rule government and a land value taxation (LVT). Pennsylvania’s municipalities operate under either the Third-Class City Code (state law driven), the Optional Third-Class Charter Law (balance of local and state law driven) or Home Rule Charters (most locally driven). Williamsport currently operates under the Third-Class Optional Charter plan, which still restricts how it raises revenue and sets limits on local decision-making in terms of taxation,” he said.

“Switching to Home Rule has a number of benefits, notably on the revenue side. The state tax code the City is mandated to follow caps all major revenue streams (earned income, local services tax, property tax millage) which restricts our ability to balance our revenue streams and creates reliance on property taxes as our main source of revenue,” Beiter said.

“Under home rule, the caps on these critical revenue streams is removed, which would enable Williamsport adjust rates in a more equitable way and provide property tax relief to those who need it most (and to be clear, I do NOT want to see property taxes go any higher because they are already the highest in the area). Williamsport would also be able to shift and have more local control over government structure, staffing, procurement, and fiscal rules, which translates to leaner government and slower expense growth,” he added.

“The second piece of the puzzle is the Land Value Tax. Pennsylvania is one of the few states that explicitly allows split-rate property taxation, where land is taxed at a higher rate than buildings,” Beiter said.

“A Land Value Tax works best when paired with code enforcement, redevelopment programs, and economic development incentives. Williamsport residents would see that owners of vacant lots or underutilized properties pay more, which pressures them to develop or sell. This combats land speculation and helps reduce blight–lowering long-term code enforcement and public safety costs. This also shifts tax weight from responsible homeowners that are continually improving or maintaining their houses to absentee landowners, speculators, and fights blight, all of which continue to be a burden on city departments. Enacting a land value tax would stabilize and grow the city’s property tax base in a fair, pro-growth way while keeping Williamsport an attractive place for our most important asset, families,” he said.

What way can the city improve its code enforcement and ensure money invested for residential, commercial, and industrial blight mitigation happens?

“Codes enforcement and blight mitigation are at the center of Williamsport’s fiscal stress: vacant and poorly maintained properties drag down values for responsible home and business owners, cut tax revenues because a property is reassessed, and increase costs because of fire and police calls as well as administrative time,” Beiter said.

“Codes must take a Proactive approach compared to its longstanding complaint-driven approach. They can start using data-driven targeting by using our current databases of property for repeat offenders for things such as delinquent taxes, utilities shutoffs, frequent police/fire calls so priority is going to “high-cost” properties. To implement this, codes needs a clear direction as to what they are trying to accomplish from administrative leadership. Targeted enforcement and using a data driven approach is great but without a true goal from administrative leadership the enforcement officers will continue to operate on their own accord accomplishing nothing of meaningful impact,” Beiter concluded.