If approved by voters on Nov. 3, the 2020 Cannabis Tax Measure C places a 10% tax on the gross receipts of cannabis businesses delivering products in Calabasas.
Currently, Calabasas prohibits cannabis businesses from operating within city limits.
Measure C will not change that prohibition nor does it tax medical patients using cannabis.
The proposed measure addresses other cannabis operations and future dispensaries should the City Council or state decide to allow them in the future. At that point, the City Council could set the tax rates at or below 10 percent.
There’s a buzz in Sacramento requiring cities to allow cannabis sales in their town.
Measure C is expected, if approved, to raise about $10,000 annually and beef up city coffers for public safety, roads and transportation, parks and recreation and other general services.
If dispensaries were ever approved in the future, they are estimated to bring in an additional $300,000 each.
A yes vote supports imposing the tax. A no vote opposes it.
A simple majority of votes cast or 50% plus one will approve or defeat the measure.
In 2016, California voters approved Proposition 64 legalizing adult-use cannabis and allowed cities to prohibit or regulate cannabis businesses.
Proposition 64 and state law impose sales and other taxes on medical and recreational cannabis.
Cities may, with voter approval, tax cannabis businesses.
As of 2018, Calabasas’ population was 23,954.
In 2016, residents voted overwhelmingly in support of Proposition 64.
Today, support for the approval of Measure C is based on the city’s long‐term financial stability and a step, some argue, to stave off taxing residents and property owners for services in Calabasas located in the hills west of the San Fernando Valley and in the northwest Santa Monica Mountains.
There has been no formal opposition to the measure touted to ensure the commercial cannabis industry pays its fair share.