The cannabis industry sold our Board of Supervisors on the fiction that legally grown cannabis would generate abundant taxes. On that basis, the Supervisors approved Measure A, “…to fund essential county services such as addressing industry impacts, public safety, fire, health, housing, roads, and environmental protection…”. Now the cannabis industry demands a tax holiday on outdoor cannabis because they lost their cannabis bet.
At its Jan. 4 meeting, growers claimed to be going broke and threatened to go back to “the black market” and grow illegally. Why should we pay this blackmail ransom and subsidize that industry? At that meeting, the county admitted the taxes generated from the cannabis barely covered the costs of administering the program, before even considering the true costs like enforcement, cleanup, and the upcoming costs of the Environmental Impact Report.
The tax boon is a myth – smoke and mirrors. The Board is flying blind without fundamental studies of cannabis industry economics. Napa County did such a study and rejected the entire industry. Until the Board can see through the smoke, it should put the “tax brake” on granting even more favors to the cannabis industry. Stop subsidizing cannabis.
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