California County Supervisors (Santa Barbara) hit pause on Cannabis Tax Reform
CANNANNEW REPORT

News Channel 12 write Amid plummeting prices for cannabis “flower” in the Golden State, Santa Barbara County is likely to collect only $10.8 million in cannabis tax revenues this fiscal year, or 40 percent less than the $18.4 million that was budgeted last June, authorities say. Statewide, the newly legalized industry continues to produce an oversupply of wholesale cannabis as new operators get licensed and enter the market, driving prices down, according to the County Executive Officer’s third quarter budget report. It’s the second time the CEO has been forced to lower the county’s cannabis tax projections for 2021-22. By some estimates, California growers are producing three times as much marijuana as can be consumed in the state. The illegal market is believed to account for at least two-thirds of total sales; Santa Barbara County alone spends more than $3 million on cannabis enforcement yearly. “We’ve had quite a ride this year, trying to determine how much money we think we’re going to bring in,” Brittany Heaton, the county’s principal cannabis analyst, told the Board of Supervisors at a May 17 hearing. But the glut on the market and the competition from illegal operations don’t entirely explain the county’s lower-than-expected cannabis tax revenues. The tax structure approved by county voters in 2018 sets a four percent tax on gross sales revenues from cannabis cultivation, as reported every quarter to the county Treasurer-Tax Collector by the growers themselves. That “self-reporting” has led to some loss of tax revenues, county officials say, though they don’t know how much. Fair share In 2020, the county Grand Jury issued a scathing report, contending that the Board of Supervisors had “simply opened the floodgates” to the cannabis industry and failed to protect the public by limiting its location and spread. Among a host of recommendations,…

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