With voters' approval in hand, Williamsport's Home Rule Study Commission has two key goals for the coming weeks: Get sworn in and start scheduling meetings.
"As far as I understand it, we have 15 days after the results of the election have been certified to hold our first public meetings," Commission member Andrew Dincher said Wednesday.
"A lot of it is still be to be determined as of now. I think we're planning on getting sworn in the first week of June," Dincher said.
Dincher hopes the public will turn out to make their voices heard once the meetings get underway.
"We don't want it to be like, where we're just in a room by ourselves, talking about this. We want to have a lot of public input," he said.
Information about meetings will be posted on the williamsporthomerule.com website, he said, and the group also has a YouTube page where videos of meetings will be shared.
Fellow commission member J. David Smith noted that the panel's meetings will be subject to the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act: They will be publicly advertised and open to the public — except in situations where an executive session may be required — and minutes will be kept.
Substantial vote in favor
Williamsport voters on Tuesday approved creation of a seven-member commission that will study the city's form of government.
With all 80 precincts reporting, unofficial results posted by Lycoming County Voter Services showed 1,745 voters, or 64%, in favor of forming the commission and 999, or 36%, opposed.
All registered voters in the city were eligible to vote yes or no on the question, regardless of party affiliation.
The commission will have nine months to develop recommendations. Its recommendations would then be presented to the public for review and a final vote in 2027.
What is home rule?
Home rule allows municipalities powers beyond what they normally would have under state law. One of the key powers is the ability to set property and personal income tax rates above what state law allows.
Home rule also would allow for changing the structure of local government, such as the number of council members and whether the city continues having a mayor or opts for another form of executive, such as a city manager in place of a strong mayor.
It does so by giving communities a chance to adopt their own charter, or "local constitution."
The vote comes as the city has struggled financially in recent years, with growing annual deficits.
Advocates say adopting home rule would give Williamsport greater control over local decisions such as zoning, taxation, and public services.
Opponents raised concerns about changing the structure of city government and the possibility of subjecting residents to higher income taxes.
Thoughts about the process
Smith and Dincher spoke about the next steps with WVIA News on Wednesday, but also what they heard from the public in the lead up to Tuesday's vote.
Concerns about raising taxes were on many minds, they said.
"I was at the polling places advocating for folks to vote for this, and one of the things that I heard is 'property taxes, property taxes, property taxes," Smith said.
Dincher also heard a lot of concerns about taxation.
"I think there's definitely a lot of misconceptions out there. I think one of them was that this just means higher taxes," he said.
Tuesday's ballot question, which was approved by City Council in December 2025, said "The transition to Home Rule is recommended in order to increase the city's financial stability, decrease its dependency on property taxes, diversify its opportunities for taxation, and provide the city with better local control over governance."
Philadelphia-based Public Financial Management (PFM), a consultant, has been assessing Williamsport's finances after the city sought technical assistance from the state under its Strategic Management Planning Program. PFM has said the city needs to increase revenue, and one of the key options would be to gain more local control over the resident-earned income tax (EIT) rate through home rule.
Dincher acknowledged that as a Williamsport resident, he shares concerns about taxation.
"More taxes is not necessarily something anybody's super excited about," he said.
"I think the hope at this point is if something like an earned income tax is part of what goes through ... that we could eventually lower property taxes," he said.
Smith said one of the first steps for the commission will be to launch an "intensive educational effort" for themselves to review all the material they will need to cover, "so that we can understand what the parameters are that outline what we can do and where we can go," he said. The commission also will need to hire a consultant.
They are keeping an open mind about what direction the commission's work takes, Dincher said.
"I think, like anything, there's going to be some things about home rule that are going to be a net positive, and there might be some things about home rule that are not going to be so great," Dincher said. "That's what this study is all about — just basically trying to find out if this is going to be a good fit for the City of Williamsport."
Their final recommendations will, as noted, be put to the voters in 2027 for approval. Smith said that will absolutely guide the process.
"I think it's going to be on the mind of all the people on the commission to try to make some focused changes that we hope will gain the support of the electorate," he said.
