When the Board discussed the marijuana tax revenue distribution process at their meeting in Willits on April 8th, there was some half-hearted interest in finally, nine years after the fact, allocating those revenues as the voters called for when they overwhelmingly approved Measure AJ, the advisory measure that accompanied Measure AI, the County’s marijuana tax ordinance. We discussed this major betrayal of what the voters wanted at some length last week. (Convenient Amnesia)
Measure AJ called for more than half of the marijuana tax revenues — now well over $24 million over the nine years since voters approved the tax — to go to “funding enforcement of marijuana regulations, enhanced mental health services, repair of county roads, and increased fire and emergency medical services.”
None of the revenues have been allocated to any of those things, of course.
In December of 2020, at the suggestion of then-Supervisor Dan Gjerde, the Board decided to simply assume that since the pot tax revenues went into the General Fund and some of that was spent on those things, sort of, that that amounted to compliance with the Measure. Never mind that nobody but them interpreted the Measure in that highly self-serving way.
Nevertheless, on April 8 the Board asked staff to come back at the next meeting with a proposal that would at least attempt to properly allocate future revenues in accordance with the measure, but ignoring the fact that they hadn’t complied with it for nine years and the revenues are now way down, like the County’s entire legalized marijuana industry.
At the end of that April 8 discussion, newly seated First District Supervisor Madeline Cline proved that she’s already fully absorbed the Board’s “us-first” mentality by suggesting that the list of services that the voters approved was a list of priorities, and that the revenue should go to the bottomless pit of “enforcement of marijuana regulations” first, and the other things only if there’s any left over after the failed pot program gobbles it all up.
None of Cline’s dim colleagues disagreed with the Cline Contortion, coming some four years after the Gjerde Dodge. So that’s what staff jumped on.
In this week’s budget presentation under the heading “Measure AI Apportionments,” we find: “At the April 8th Board Meeting, staff was directed to prioritize funding Cannabis Department (MCD) with Cannabis Tax Revenues first, then other service categories. (Measure AJ (2016) advised that the majority of revenues generated from the Cannabis business tax be utilized for the following services: Cannabis Regulation Enforcement, Roads repair, Mental Health Services, and Fire and Medical Emergency Services.”
(Notice again that the staff’s recitation of the Measure AJ allocations excludes the words “enhanced” and “increased” which are specifically in the text of Measure AJ.)
The staff presentation continues: “Based on current FY 25-26 budget: $1 million is budgeted for Cannabis Tax Revenue and the Mendocino Cannabis Department is currently budgeted at $991,582. [!] This means that for FY25-26 only Cannabis Regulation Enforcement will be covered by Cannabis Tax revenues, according to current projections.”
In other words: Nothing for “enhanced mental health, roads repair or increased emergency services.”
Since the Cline’s Contortion was tacitly accepted by her colleagues and has now found its way into the “budget presentation,” we expect that the Board will gleefully jump on it next Tuesday since it requires no work on their part and the County gets to keep all the money for themselves and their failed pot program.
Supervisor Bernie Norvell said during the April 8 discussion: “If we ever go back to the public to ask for taxes, we have to show that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing.”
Yet he went along with showing the exact opposite of that.
Will Norvell go along with the Cline Contortion on Tuesday and continue to deprive the other voter approved services?
LEW CHICHESTER (Covelo)
Interesting additional information regarding Measure AJ Reconciliation. I didn’t really follow this tax measure over the last few years, but in our local, Round Valley Municipal Advisory Council meetings of the last few months a related topic has consistently been discussed. The local, legal, permitted cannabis growers are being taxed to oblivion and right down the street will be unpermitted, untaxed grows with apparently no code enforcement. A few of us locals had a meeting with county planning and building, code enforcement, third district supervisor John Haschak and Sheriff Matt Kendall, attempting to gain some understanding as to the county’s position on the various code violations which typically accompany the unpermitted grows around here. The story seems to be that the county has no inclination to go after the scofflaws with their abandoned grow sites, crappy fences, broken down vehicles, and household garbage scattered about but still want to collect the taxes on the growers trying to do the legal thing. It is just too much trouble, abatement is a hassle, county counsel doesn’t support the concept, and so consequently nothing happens to support the taxpaying growers in competition with the growers who pay no taxes and trash the place at the same time.
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