Redheaded Blackbelt..
Humboldt County continues to revoke cannabis permits due to non-payment of Measure S excise taxes but some debts are being addressed through payment plans and some property buyers are willing to assume the tax debts of previous cultivators.
The county’s Board of Supervisors approved eight more cannabis permit revocations at its June 17 meeting.
There were nine permits recommended to be revoked but the ninth was removed from the list because it’s in the process of being transferred to a new owner who’s agreed to pay the Measure S debt.
There have been other cases of that and planning staff described three examples of it, with properties in Bridgeville and Petrolia.
In two of the three examples, Measure S tax debts of $68,610 and $9,830 have been paid in full. The third property buyer has entered into a tax debt payment plan.
Supervisor Steve Madrone said revocations must proceed but there’s a simple way to hold them off.
“There is an out here and that is to develop a payment plan,” he said. “That’s kicking it down the road, it gives time to try and hold on to that permit, make payments and finish that off by the end of the year.”
Yet Madrone questioned the very existence of Measure S.
“Should we have ever had a Measure S? I don’t believe so. But is in place and it is there,” he said.
During a public comment period, cultivators described financial hardships that tax debts contribute to.
Southern Humboldt cannabis farmer Craig Johnson described Measure S as a dysfunctional tax.
He noted the size of one of the permits being revoked – 3,260 square feet, with a $4,000 tax debt – and described the holder as “clearly a family operation.”
It’s in Redwood Valley, which Johnson said has “suffered a degrading road” and has a school that closed, as “pretty much the entire community has moved out because of cannabis legalization and over-taxation.”
Adding that “we were coming to the board from the beginning, saying ‘this isn’t working, we need help,’” Johnson implored supervisors to “listen with both ears” when cultivators tell them Measure S is “not working.”
There was discussion about what happens when farms go out of business.
Supervisor Rex Bohn said he’s gotten calls from realtors trying to sell properties with Measure S debts and abatement issues.
Planning Director John Ford said the county regularly works with realtors and buyers to resolve those issues.
Bohn vouched for that approach, comparing cannabis farming to other financially-challenged resource industries.
“Anything we can do to help keep that segment of the business, kind of like what we tried to do with logging and with fishing,” he said. “We’re a resource-based county, no way around it so as we go forward, we should do anything we can to help.”
Supervisors voted to revoke eight debt-saddled permits due to non-response from their owners and to hold off on revoking the one in the process of being transferred.
They also directed staff to return with an agenda item on extending the county’s payment plan program.
The vote was unanimous, with Board Chair Michelle Bushnell absent due to illness.
Ford estimated that 20 to 30 more tax debt revocations will be brought to supervisors by the end of the year.
Source:
Eight More Humboldt Cannabis Permits Revoked as Tax Debts Linger
