HOWLAND — With talks of a statewide amendment to repeal Ohio’s property tax continuing to make headlines, township officials hope to build upon previous discussions by hosting another public meeting.

Trustees at Wednesday’s regular meeting approved a special meeting at 6 p.m. Feb. 25 at the township’s administration building to discuss owner-occupied and homestead credit programs and give an update on property tax reforms.

Administrator James Pantalone said the meeting was a follow-up to the one they hosted in September, after elected officials, county commissioners and the public met to discuss potential implications of a property tax abolishment or reform.

Pantalone said commissioners are in the midst of discussing the owner-occupied and homestead credit programs, which could reduce the tax burden on residents by providing matching homestead property tax exemptions for senior citizens and allowing an increased amount of sales tax dollars to stay in the county instead of paying for state programs.

“If the commissioners were to move forward with doubling both of those items, it would be a cost of about $272,000 to the township-wide budget,” Pantalone said.

Trustee Frank Dillon, noting the amount of information available on the property tax issue to be “pretty scary”, said the group attempting to put the repeal on the state’s ballot isn’t letting anyone know how many signatures they have.

Dillon said he believed the group, Committee to Abolish Ohio Property Taxes, had to get 418,000 signatures in 44 different counties — noting that they’ve popped up in different public places.

They’ve been having rallies in a lot of places — they go to county fairs, any community events, and set up a little tent and ask people to sign. They don’t explain what the end result will be — they just ask for signatures,” Dillon said. “Tell them that it would eliminate property taxes, you wouldn’t have to pay that anymore — all that extra money in your pocket, right?”

Dillon said North Dakota tried to do something similar, but after they suggested putting a greater sales tax on items to offset the loss of property tax funds, voters backed off on the issue.

“This group decided to be a little bit, maybe smarter on their end — they just said ‘Eliminate taxes’, they didn’t say how they were going to solve the problem,” Dillon said.

Fiscal Officer Thomas Krispinsky said the state was looking at a 20% increase in sales tax, potentially allowing groceries to be taxed to offset property tax reductions.

“That’s very scary, and that’s just from the state; the county would have to increase their sales tax,” Dillon said. “They’ve offered no resolution, no additional funding to make up for the loss — nobody’s going to put that out there.”