Will More Cities Pass Measures To Tax Large Scale Marijuana Growers?
While many marijuana activists around the country were celebrating the marijuana legalization and mmj victories in Washington, Colorado, and Michigan, a small town in Northern California was celebrating a different kind of marijuana reform victory. The citizens of Arcata, California, which is right in the heart of the ‘Emeral Triangle’, voted 69% to 31% to adopt a new tax on large marijuana gardens.
If someone uses more than three times the ‘average’ amount of electricity, then they have to pay a 45 percent tax on that electricity. The bill (Measure I) is aimed at large scale marijuana growers that long time residents of Arcata feel are ruining their town.
“Mayor Michael Winkler said the vote shows even though people in Arcata are pretty liberal about marijuana, they want the large indoor growing operations out of their neighborhoods. If growers don’t leave, Winkler says he will ask voters to raise the tax even more. He also hopes to persuade neighboring communities to take similar steps.” According to the Mercury News.
“Our hope is to drive the large-scale growing operations out of town,” Shane Brinton, a city councilman and vice mayor, stated in an AP article less than two weeks ago. “I don’t view it as anti-marijuana,” said Brinton. “It’s a land-use issue, a public safety issue, and environmental issue as well.”
What do TWB readers think? Do you think there should be a tax on large scale marijuana gardens? Do you think that there should be no extra tax at all? I wouldn’t be surprised to see this start popping up in more and more ‘marijuana towns’ in Northern California and Southern Oregon, and possibly beyond. Almost all of the locals I know in Southern Oregon complain about people flooding into the area to grow marijuana. From what I can tell, the electricity tax in Arcata is the first of it’s kind in the nation.
