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On Tuesday, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will decide whether or not to place a marijuana cultivation tax measure on the November ballot, and if so, how much tax should be charged. Most county residents are in favor such a tax, according to a recently conducted poll, and staff says it would generate more than $14 million per year for the county’s general fund.

This idea has been cooking for a while now. When the state passed the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act last year, it gave county governments a variety of new oversight roles in this, ahem, budding industry, including the right to levy taxes on each and every step of the process — cultivating, processing, storing, dispensing, distributing … you name it.

In other words, county governments finally have a chance to get a taste of the green economy profits. If any county anywhere stands to gain from this new state of affairs, it’s ours.

“As the center of one of the planet’s premier cannabis-growing regions,” county staff observes in its report, “Humboldt County has an interest in availing itself of these new regulatory roles.”

You better believe it.

In January the supervisors allocated $171,500 to bring in an Oakland consulting firm, the Lew Edwards Group (LEG), to conduct polling and, if necessary, help put an excise tax measure the ballot. LEG, in turn, kicked the polling task to a subcontractor named Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, and in late April that firm called 400 likely voters spread evenly across the county’s five supervisorial districts. Here’s what they asked:

To maintain and improve essential services, including:

  • Public safety, parks and job creation;
  • Crime investigation/prosecution;
  • Children’s mental health services;
  • Environmental cleanup/restoration; and
  • Other County services,

Shall Humboldt County establish a graduated, annual commercial marijuana cultivation tax of $1 to $12 per square foot, based upon grow type and size, generating approximately $14.1 million annually until ended by voters, all revenue for the County, none for State, with annual audits [and] public review?

While the full poll results won’t be revealed until Tuesday’s meeting, staff says the question received “well over the required 50 percent support threshold needed to pass.” The tax would only apply in the unincorporated parts of the county, not within the city limits of Eureka, Arcata, Trinidad, Blue Lake, Fortuna, Ferndale or Rio Dell.

Some specifics: County staff is proposing a progressive tax structure, meaning large-scale grows would be taxed at a higher rate than small grows, and indoor grows would be taxed higher than outdoor. Outdoor grows smaller than 3,000 square feet would be taxed at the lowest rate — $1 per square foot. The highest rate — $6 per square foot — would be reserved for indoor grows of 10,000 square feet, the largest allowed under the county’s Medical Marijuana Land Use Ordinance. (Staff decided not to go as high as the $12 fee mentioned in the polling question.)

The supervisors will have three options: 1) place the measure, as written, before voters in November, 2) place the measure before voters but with a different tax rate or structure, or 3) nix the whole idea.

Staff notes how important it is to set the tax rate at just the right level. Set it too high and it would put Humboldt at a competitive disadvantage, and probably encourage the black market to continue. Set it too low and, well, the county won’t make as much money as it should, maybe not even enough to mitigate the damage from illegal grow ops.

Any countywide tax would be charged in addition to statewide taxes, which have been proposed in several state-level weed tax bills working their way through the legislature. Plus, if weed is fully legalized in November through the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, the state will implement a 15 percent tax on all marijuana sales. 

If you have an opinion on this whole tax proposal, you may want to show up at tomorrow’s meeting in supervisor chambers at the Humboldt County Courthouse, starting at 9 a.m. Read the full staff report here.