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SLO County’s cannabis program more than $1 million in the red

September 24, 2023

By KAREN VELIE

San Luis Obispo County tax payers will pay more than $1 million during the current fiscal year to fund the county’s failing cannabis industry, according to the Sept. 27 Board of Supervisors agenda.

During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the county spent $400,942 to subsidize the local cannabis industry. The county collected $1,126,229 on cannabis fees and taxes while spending $1,527,171 to manage the program.

Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg in June suggested a cannabis tax freeze in order to allow the industry to prosper. She also wanted to expand the delivery hours from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. and to permit retail stores in order to generate more fee and tax revenue.

Supervisor Debbie Arnold argued that county residents should not subsidize the cannabis industry.

On June 20, the board voted to lower the cannabis tax rate to 6% rather than raising it to a voter approved 10%, with Arnold dissenting.

As the result of lowering the tax rate, staff now estimates the county will need to spend $1,008,727 to subsidize the cannabis industry during the 2023-2024 tax year, according to the staff report. The county expects to collect $1,565,180 in cannabis fees and taxes and to spend $2,573,907 to manage the program.

During Tuesday’s meeting, the SLO County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to discuss amending its cannabis ordinance to allow retail marijuana shops in the county and to extend delivery hours until 10 p.m.

While the legalization of recreational marijuana has been a boon for California, the tax revenue generated continues to decline year over year.

Last year, the state raked in approximately $1.1 billion in cannabis tax revenue. However, the state collected $104.2 million in cannabis excise taxes in the first quarter of 2023, a drop of 32% from from the first quarter of 2022.

Amid a massive overproduction of cannabis in the state, prices for legal cannabis have fallen about 50% in six years. Meanwhile, pot users can find black market cannabis at 30% to 60% the price or choose to grow their own.


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Who else can create a system to oversee incoming revenue and spend more than they actually take in?

Two words:

Bloated government


46

Don’t blame the industry, blame the county.

These are same people who make everything 100 times more complicated than it has to be.

Have you tried to get a building permit lately?

Also I have watched first hand how the county will delay permitting a legal growing operation because the drooling moron’s in the neighborhood don’t like the smell. Well you know what I don’t like you spraying round-up every chance you get to protect your winery. Oh then there’s the undesirable element it attracts, by that I mean all the drunk wine tasting boomers in their SUV’s.

Hypocrisy, hahaha! It costs money to be a hypocrite. Taxpayer money.


20

Surprise surprise surprise. The whole legalization effort has been a scam from start to finish. First it was “there are medical needs for this” even though there were prescription drugs with the same active ingredients, and next “we should do it to raise tax revenue”, also clearly a hoax. Don’t forget the whole Helios debacle. They need to triple the taxes or shut it all down.


37

I’m going to need to see an accounting breakdown of how this $1.52M was spent and why it’s going to cost $2.57M to run the program for the following fiscal year. Something sounds off…


51

1 worker bee that ‘works’ maybe 2 hours per day. $160,000 per year

8 supervisors that do little to nothing all day. $220,000 per year each

1 DEI coordinator $240,000 per year


And next year they will all get a 12% pay increase.


16

Quick question: “How many politicians/government officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?”


27

None. After paying salaries and pensions, they couldn’t pay the electric bill, and didn’t have enough to buy a new bulb, which they previously outlawed to posess.


27

all of them…


9

Nope. Not enough. They could not collectively even decide which end goes in the socket.


2

Reminds me of the watermelon farmer in the valley that couldn’t find a buyer, so he loaded his truck with melons and headed for the coast. After selling three loads of melons, he realized he had lost two hundred and fifty dollars per load. Then it hit him “I’ll just have to hire someone so I can make twice as many trips”


Just package this crap put a state tax stamp on it and allow any place that has a tobacco license to sell it and be done with all the pot shops b s.


28

Thanks to the county, it’s still way cheaper to buy from someone who grows. $1.5M to manage the program? Sounds like too many county bean counters are at the feeding trough.


66

Attention Board of Supervisors please! I’m having trouble paying my property taxes among other taxes, so why don’t your lower them as you do for POT?


78

Yet another example of how disinformation bureaucrats can screw up a ball bearing.


66
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