Rally to Suspend Measure S, the Humboldt County Cannabis Cultivation Tax, Today at Noon
Press release from the Suspend Measure S Grassroots Campaign:
Humboldt County Courthouse — Tuesday, January 18, 2022, @ noon (30-minute event)
Local canna-businesses and concerned citizens form a grassroots movement to make a plea to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors to support Humboldt farmers by suspending Measure S ahead of the March 15th due date for county cultivation taxes.
Background Information and Rally Goals
The wholesale price of cannabis has plummeted post-legalization due to overproduction and prohibitive taxation, including the Humboldt County cultivation tax based on the square footage of allowable, grow space. This tax is paid even if no cannabis is produced or sold, and the tax rate does not fluctuate with market conditions. This tax is not applied to any other agricultural product. As a result, HumCo’s cannabis industry and local economy are in jeopardy as farms continue to shutter. The Suspend Measure S campaign asks the HumCo Board of Supervisors to:
- Forgive the October 2021 tax payment.
- Waive the March 2022 tax payment.
- Suspend the tax for an additional year.
During the break from taxation, the community and the government will have time to come together, through a public process, to restructure a new equitable and fair tax.
“The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors may repeal this Chapter, or amend it in a manner which does not result in an increase in the amount of the tax or broaden the scope of the tax imposed herein, without further voter approval. If the Board of Supervisors repeals any provision of this Chapter, it may subsequently reenact it without voter approval, as long as the reenacted provision does not result in an increase in the amount of the tax or broaden the scope of the tax imposed herein. (Ord. 2567, § 1, 12/13/2016).”Speaker Itinerary
Natalynne DeLapp (ED, Humboldt County Growers Alliance); Dylan Mattole (Legacy Farmer and Owner, Mattole Valley Sungrown); Sequoyah Hudson (CEO, Humboldt Sun Growers Guild); Sandi DeLuca (Realtor, Coldwell Banker Sellers Realty); Laura Lasseter (DOO, Southern Humboldt Business and Visitors Bureau); Brooklynn Willett (CEO, Emerald Employment); Jackee Riccio (ED, Cannabis for Conservation); Melanie Johnson (Legacy Farmer and Owner, Alpenglow Farms)
About the Suspend Measure S Grassroots Campaign
The Suspend Measure S campaign is a grassroots effort composed of cannabis businesses, community partners, local citizens, and organizations, powered with help from the Humboldt County Growers Alliance. Together we are working together for long-term economic vitality and prosperity for Humboldt County.
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
I would like to hold a rally at the same time to maybe get my property tax’s suspended, can we work together?
You do realize that growers pay property tax, too…and state taxes and waterboard fees, etc?
Right now, our family is staring at the $700 State Water Board fees for this year knowing its the first in a long line of taxes and fees we need to pay this coming year if we grow. We haven’t sold one bud from last year’s crop in spite of having 28% THC and a beautiful hand manicure and haven’t sold half of the year-before’s. My husband and I will be okay but my middle son who is a farmer who raises his own bees, chickens, veggies, smokes his own ham from pigs he raises, bottles the wine and brandy and port he makes, etc, is not. Should we try for one more year hoping that he’ll find a way forward or are we just flushing more money after the money we already flushed?
A waiver of some of the fees would give us a sense that the County was trying to help and give us some breathing room.
It was a pipe dream that legalization would make things better. The days of wine and roses are over. Once the govt. is involved, it’s always worse. Try voting republican for a change, or for someone who believes in limited govt.
Republicans like Reagan you mean, running the helicopters and the police state? No thank you.
Yeah, Republicans care about the little guy.
Most are the little guy, the ones that work and know how to build and fix things. The democrats mostly live in cities and rely on these little guys to fix things for them.
A benefit is that the gendarmes are no longer rousting citizens over a bit o’ weed, otherwise, it appears to be a complete wreck.
I used to live up there in da hills. Some cool peeps but too much meth and thieves and thug life redneck bs. I say most of the heads got what they deserved. Tiny violins. The cool people were pushed out by thievey snitchey “big time” people from out of state.
Scabs, basically.
Sorry to hear about your son. And there isn’t much to turn to these days to get you thru the bad times.. Timber and fishing industries pretty much gone, and for a lot of the same reasons.
Massive over harvest leading to environmental collapse is a but different than over production of cannabis, but I see your point.
It grows back, I’ve watched it, now I’m watching it die, no local mills that want pine and fir. It can be done well everywhere else.
Guess youve never seen the aftermath of a big grow that got left behind after the greedy. Drug farmers. Got their cash. Or didnt get their cash. And went on vacation or back to wherever they came from. Erosion. Garbage. Chemical pollution or oil spills. Any trailers. Cabins or structures. Degraded or blighted out. Looks like corporate greed to me disguised in a jacked up truck or prius either way. Now you arrogant f “&$ks. Got your way. Its legal. So smoke in public. Smoke in front of my kids. But dont whimper about taxes or overreach Logging is over. Fishing is hit or miss. Your turn. Pay up like the rest of us. You voted for these left wing communists
I work in timber. If you want to work, there are jobs in timber. Starting wages aren’t great, but def above minimum wage and there is lots of room for upward mobility. I started my career in 2004 at $12.50/hr. 18 years later I’m doing well looking at a comfortable retirement. But, I know, everyone thinks the industry is “pretty much gone”.
The local phone co will pay 40 an hr to start and pay you to go to linemen school …
There’s no local phone company.
Timber and fishing and soon to be marry j wanna. Government tax and regulate everything right into the ground. It will only get better if government gets smaller and I don’t see that happening anytime soon if ever
I am pretty sure there are job openings at all the mills, actually there are a lot of jobs available all around the County, State, Country. It would be a dream of mine to to live off the land but it doesn’t always work out, it is too expensive to live these days.
My father told me that I would have to learn a variety of careers to make a living on the north coast. I won’t go into details, but he was right. My passion was the lumber industry, like my whole family was involved in. It broke my heart to have to move on, but I did learn a big variety of subjects that paid off well for me.
A lot of the growers that I know have invested in other things and will probably do well. This is an extremely difficult time to pick a new career. Being industrious and energetic is key. Following your passion is not always good advice.
I followed my passion. I didn’t make any money for five years (my husband had a job and I did, too) and I’m still not rich. But I never say, “Damn, I’ve got to get back to work.” Seems like the goal of life should be feel a sense of satisfaction and joy as much possible. BUT, sometimes eating is more important that loving a job you don’t get paid for. It’s a tricky balance.
The key is to have something to eat while you do that “Tricky Balance.”
I spent a career in engineering, developing computer and sensor based products, really enjoyed it and there are lots of jobs.
Nowadays there are tons of free web sites dedicated to teaching people how to program computers. I’m sure many people searching for a career path would do well in software. Another nice thing about software is that one can often work remotely.
If you like sitting at a desk.
Yeah, computer programming isn’t for everybody but I guess that is true for most jobs.
Are you also rallying to remove the cap on farm size? I believe you are a small farm yourself? If you don’t support small farmers, they cant really support you, since it is to their detriment.
The amoun toyu are taxed is unjust, but so was the removal of farm size cap.
I have always believed there needed to be a cap on farm size for the first few years…but I think that ship has sailed.
I believe Kym is a small farm? I am as well. When we became legal, there was to be a one acre cap until 2023…. well we all can see how that went ! Soooo much product it couldn’t be smoked in two years even if no one on either side of the market grew ???
Unfortunately the way it ended up working is large farms have been able to just stack permits to get so big.
Yep ! Those Triple Rs sure came in handy for the big grower ?
Just ran us local folks right outta the game.. just blows that people who’ve grown up here,been on the grind, guerrilla growing,taking care of our soils, n streams, got screwed hard.
The Stupidvisors do ANYthing to help others make a buck, Oh HELL NO!!!!!
Kym, sorry to hear this situation. There is no doubt in my mind that the taxes, fees and regulations were designed to punitively punish those who sought licensure for the past actions of others. I heard this straight from the mouths of CDFW and even Trinity BOS supe Groves when he said: “the license holders will continue to pay for the past deeds of their forefathers.”
You mentioned the $700 waterboard fee. What have they done to justify this each year? They are next to impossible to contact out here in trinity. The fees actually go to enforcement efforts across the whole north coast region. It has nothing to do with your farm except maybe their website and server which you renter the annual data. It was even worse when the NCRWQCB was in charge and charged $3000 per year. The CDFW attachment E fees (~$5-10k) are the same. That goes to enforcement and not the cost to administer the LSAA.
I really hope changes happen, but at this point everyone I talk to is so broke all they can focus on is feeding their families. Hate to say this but, no I wouldn’t bother trying for one more year. Have your son use that time to educate/train for a new career and he’ll be further ahead in the first year.
We’re going on a fourth generation of farmers who never paid one dime in taxes of any kind beyond sales tax. How could any of them have known the people they voted for saw legalization as an opportunity to recoup decades of lost revenue.
I know it’s probably not what you want to hear, but there is a buyer for every bag… you just gotta find them. Ypu might have to spend a few days on the phone and call every distributor you can find up and down the state. Unfortunately the 2020 pounds are probably only good for extract at this point, maybe $30 per pound if you’re lucky. Do you have 2021 pounds with different local distributors? I gave sample pounds to several distributors leaders to increase my chances of selling. Some were able to sell and some were not. Call it greenhouse, not outdoor. What strains do you have? Change the name if you have to. Take any offer that comes your way for 400 or more.
Here’s some to talk to… SISU, Bear, Green Ox, Green Light, Trusty, Humboldt AF, Humboldt Distribution, Humboldt Farms, Redwood Roots, Trim Depot, Headwaters, Up North, High Grade, Altum Mind, Kiskanu, Calyx, Gold Coast Brands, Pushr, Peak Industries, Sun Growers Guild, Thrive Society, Herbl, Radiant, Nabis, Mammoth, Kings Coast, and Continuum. Call them all to see if they can sell your bud or just to get their opinion on the current state of affairs.
Best of luck!
Well, we don’t lie. So calling it greenhouse is off the table. Changing the name of the strain…also, a lie. So off the table.
Work harder at selling. I agree. That is a failing of ours. And we would snap up an offer at this point. Thank you for the suggestions. There are some we haven’t tried.
Kym, the legal farm I grow for sold my outdoor. SISU knew it was outdoor yet the buyer paid greenhouse prices. It was because of the trimming, we trimmed it just leaving the “fruit” no leaf, none, it looked indoor pretty. We were not the ones who lied and neither do you. You don’t have to give up your morals but if you wanna play in the corporate space then ya gotta present the product the way corporate wants. Blessings.
I hear you about the naked trim…I hate it. It’s a waste of good smoke that protects the bud but…sometimes you have to give the customer what they want even if it seems ridiculous.
lol, I don’t like it either but I suggest making prerolls out of it instead of selling it as shake. You will have to make a batch of a few hundred but legal prerolls are selling well especially in the Long Beach area. Best of luck.
It’s not ‘corporate,’ it’s the market. The end consumer is not necessarily going to be a connoisseur. People who for decades have bought whatever the rando at the park had on him that day are going to buy what looks/smells like ‘good weed’ to them. And many times, the seller changes the strain name/grow type, for the same reason.
My professional advice to you all would be to cultivate for color and nose over THC. High THC is still a selling point, but if a consumer can smell the ice cream and the cake in your ICC, and if it’s a pretty purple (no dye, please) it’ll sell all day long at a price that makes you smile.
No it’s corporate and to play in the corporate space ya gotta give them product so they can just hand it over the counter. I grow purple for the legal market and yes it sells well when done their way. Take a cheaper path (bulk, not trimming it properly) and you will not smile. The THC selling point is a corporate push (it determines price ask SISU, lol) and I now know how they been doin it, finally. I genetically have grown one strain (for a long damn time) I know if tested properly (cause I have) it would never get to 20% THC, never! Well guess what if you employ the use of certain corporate paths, viola, fuck’in 28% and I got the COA to prove it, very sad.
The market you speak of is the Traditional Market, they are the ones dominating the industry. You are very correct about that market except about color and THC. They don’t give a rat’s ass as long as the buyer/consumer considers it affordable. Sticky and stanky always sells and the consumer is confused as to why dispensary weed ain’t sticky is the most common comment I hear. The other comment about weed I hear often is buying weed at a dispencerary gives them much higher anxiety versus weed on the street. I don’t have an answer for that but it’s a very common statement.
I just knew the word ‘professional’ would trigger you.
I am a new distributor in Redway. Contact is: [email protected]
You grew some pot you can’t sell, Kym Kemp? And You’re posting it in the comments of one of your articles in a long rant that ends with saying you want breathing room? Your son sounds like a pretty cool person. Does he sell stuff at the farmer’s market? Does he have a website where people can buy things like his home smoked ham or bottled brandy? Why doesn’t your husband give out business cards inviting people to purchase his 28% THC pot, heck I’d even buy some 28% THC pot from your husband even though you don’t like me and disagree with me about vaccines. Kym, what a really odd comment. And so odd that I never knew you grew pot because I’ve never seen you mention that you did, never saw you post a picture of your plants you were growing on Facebook or something like people do, and now you’re saying you can’t sell it? Like I think the first thing to do if you wanna sell it is make people aware that you have it available for sale, why have you not written an article about yourself and your farm? Why aren’t local dispensaries offering Kemp(TM) Brand Buds or something? Like, you are a well known person and a self-promoter, naming your own website your first and last name and saying “It’s my newspaper, I own it, that’s me in the picture!” in your newspaper’s description. Write an article about your farm and your son’s farm, Kym, and people even ones who disagree with you about vaccines might buy your family’s products.
Ms. Kemp, hard for me to shed to many tears as the majority of growers have been at it illegal for decades and not paying income tax’s while us working stiffs were handing over our hard earned buck to the government via income, social security, unemployment. And yes we all know how all the growers paid sales tax and property tax and gas tax, we all do. My unofficial guess would be that 80% for said growers are also suckling the teet of all types of welfare ( food banks, P.G.&E. CARE, they really like that for the indoor stuff , EBT cards, Medical etc.) Always love the hippie chick in front of me in line at the grocery store that smells like she just got done rubbing buds all over herself and checks out all the ribeye steaks and high budget items with EBT card and a roll of hunskies for the booze. Then see her loading the new growdozer out in the parking lot. I’ve been watching this shitshow for 50 years and yes, I’m VERY tired of it.
Festus, I know there were grifters and bad actors. But my guess is that you don’t know that your kid’s coach, at least half of your local volunteer firefighters, the teacher’s aide, the bank teller, the clerk in the gas station all supplemented their income with cannabis. I could afford to devote myself to this website providing news on fires, traffic, etc. for years without an income from it as I learned my craft.
I know a lot of growers. I shop in local stores. I saw a little of what you describe. But because I know the growers very well—I’ve lived here all my life, I married into a well known cannabis family, I taught a school with many kids of growers (including my own)–I know that it was a relatively small amount of folks who were bad actors. Many if not most of the growers I know were decent contributors to the local community–think KMUD, Hospice, schools (bake sales almost always made around $1000 –try that anywhere else), environmental organizations, Little League, and, of course those firefighters. Almost all of them paid income tax. (Though certainly not on everything they made but enough to not raise eyebrows at the IRS–why do you think this area had so many carpenters, housekeepers, and masseuses?) I think you are about to watch as these family farms close, a wave of small businesses will close right behind them–that could include everything from your favorite mechanic to your favorite restaurant. I know local fire departments are already feeling the pinch of finding folks to volunteer as young guys and their families leave the hills. Sales tax income to the County will drop and we’ll all have less income to cover the same problems.
Couldn’t have put it better myself, and still asking for handouts via tax credits. It’s entitled bullshit
I hope a solution is imminent, but I doubt the concern of the county supervisors for any person, besides themselves and their “supporters”…
You won’t have to travel far into the real world to start seeing “Help Wanted” signs, and nearly anyone can find employment outside the “Cannabis industry”… I recommend State and County Jobs that are PERS eligible, and I wish I had been more aware of the whole concept at an earlier age…
As for your children, you can go “more legal” or “more illegal”, but I am fairly reticent to advise an industry I have not been involved in…
These days, crooks are in everything, and many of the crooked are foreigners…
Look at Tech Companies that produce physical products, or look at Vertically Integrated Cannabis concerns, since the large and efficient will survive, while the small and the far-from-marketplace operators will have to adapt.
In Lake County, there are signs by the highway offering to turn your “Cannabis into Cash…”
Maybe venture out from Phillipsville in search of a buyer. Maybe that’s your new job opportunity, connecting sellers with potential buyers…
There’s black, and white, and plenty of grey, and my feeling is that this, is gonna work out…
Why did you delete my comment, when I said I’d buy your pot and that you should make promotional articles and videos about yourself? What did I say wrong? Yes, I would buy your pot and make a YouTube video saying I was smoking pot grown by Kym Kemp even though she filed a false copyright claim and had my video removed from YouTube and even though I disagree with her style of reporting and disagree with her about vaccines etc and promote your son’s pot regardless of whatever we disagree about and whatever you did to me.
She didn’t.
$1,500 per acre ft of water DELIVERED, is alot to pay for Trinity, and Shasta Co. water in the deserts of the Southern Central Valley. That’s 325,000 gallons or so. Keep that in mind when considering you’re paying $700 for the RIGHT to maybe 80,000 gal you might be able to procure for yourself from your own property at your own expense but only between November and March! And only after you get your LAke and Stream Agreement with CDFW.
Do you remember the timber Tax?
well probably not, but taxing placing special taxes on a business usually ends in failure
Hey crap Yes I remember it well.
It still exists. Timber zone pays ONE DOLLAR PER ACRE TAX PER YEAR with TAX BURDEN DEFFERED UNTIL HARVEST.
That’s it. Not 1 percent of valuation of the property like it is for everything else in CA. The tax you may be thinking of isl owed BECAUSE OF THE DEFERMENT OF TAX UNTIL TIMBER HARVEST.
Now think if timberland owners paid $$40,000 per acre per year UPFRONT whether they cut timber or not to PREVENT COUNTY LIENS AND ABATEMENTS AGAINST THE PROPERTY. yeah that sounds fucked up.
The timber yeild tax is paid based on the scaled harvest AFTER IT’S SOLD TO THE MILL. And no other taxes are paid specific to logging.
The Timber yield tax was implemented to REPLACE TAXES LOST TO COUNTIES when TPZ was taken out of the LOCAL tax base and State TYT implemented. It was implemented in 1976. Timber was already over in 76 crap. I know. I was there when automation layed off anyone who couldn’t read. My mill went from 65 men to 42 men between 75 and 80′. Our production doubled at the same time.
Laser guided headrigs, computer controlled drykilns, and lot’s of hydraulics and limit switches put the uneducated worker out of millwork and cutting down the entire old growth forests (94 percent gone in N.america compared to 1600) in 400 years.
So yeah, no jobs at mills anymore.
Me, too. Inflation and taxes are hurting me badly, and Between Biden and Newsom and the democrats, there is no end in sight.
Inflation has been marching along for decades. Is it at all worse since biden?
Inflation is worse in the last year. I wouldn’t blame Biden yet.
When you declare war on fossil fuels and engage in massive govt deficit spending, taxation and regulation, the result is inflation. This is a no brainer that liberals cannot grasp.
Maybe you missed it, but the status quo needs to change. The “war” you speak of is against climate change. It’s a no brainer that conservatives cannot grasp. Also, the pandemic is the main driver of the current inflation. Supply chain disruptions started it, prior to Biden taking office.
War against the weather? Great that’s a lost cause. Be like the war on drugs. But hey it will create more government jobs along with more regulations and taxes. Isn’t government great. I guess once they tax and regulate all the private businesses out of business and can no longer get money out of tax payers it will finally end. Unfortunately I will be gone by then and unable to enjoy it
It’s a war on two fronts. First we must fight global warming, then tack back to fight the global cooling. Back and forth, to and fro, a forever war unceasing.
Conservatives understand you can’t cut off fuel until you have something reliable to replace it with.
We don’t.
Look around your house, what wasn’t made with or doesn’t use fuel?
They are telling people in the EU to hugs their pets and wear layers as they freeze. Google it.
Think of Trinity the last month, is that your future?
We should be leading the world on this conversion from fossil fuel, we behave as troglodytes.
We won’t have an economy until an infrastructure bill is passed- when that is done it will include the elements needed to accomplish the conversion.
For example; Australia is to provide solar power to Singapore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAv6GGDGeJM&ab_channel=Tomorrow%27sBuild
Yes we have a replacement for everything destroying our Earth.
Home heating?
Wear a sweater hat overcoat gloves.
Personal transportation?
Bicycles and walking.
Electricity?
Live by the light of the sun and moon.
Cooking?
Rocket stoves!
It’s easy.
Changing won’t hurt us.
Not changing is hurting us.
Supply chain issues and the free money passed along to everyone and their grandma.
You are decieved. This virus was engineered and released. These globalusts. Are doubling their wealth. And corporations are making record profits. The vaccine. And mask. Argument is a distraction. It divides the people. Same with black lives matter and all the rioting and looting. Read a little bit of history. Hitler and stalin used simular tools and identical tactics to get socialism/ communism. Biden has implemented 9 major blows to our nation starting with nixxing the pipeline. Now hes adking opec to increase production. So we still use. Just pay more to do so. Pilosi and friends are heavily invested in elect vehicles. /Gharging station. They are hetting rich er. With this bs
The economy does not respond to any actions in days it takes years. This is trumps mess, the economy was in the shitter before he left office on his looser ass
Oh, really. What were you paying for gas and groceries and big ticket items under Trump. I’ll tell you it was far less.
Blame the federal reserve. The low interest rates and assets purchases have saved the economy at the expense of the little person.
Quick search revels that inflation is going crazy all over the world, including in nations led by conservatives. This is due to the pandemic, but the USA is recovering faster then most other nations.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2021/12/08/a-most-unusual-recovery-how-the-us-rebound-from-covid-differs-from-rest-of-g7/?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20220114&utm_term=6208274&utm_campaign=money&utm_id=32072284&orgid=15&utm_att1=money
The usa is not recovering faster. Oil 85/bbl today. Inflation up to 11 percent. Ca. proposing another massive tax increase to finance socialized medicine. I could go on. Unless we increase our domestic fossil fuel production, stop printing money and increasing public debt , inflation will continue. I fear that now the FED will raise interest rates so much that a recession may result, but that’s not a good way to curtail inflation. Less government spending and regulation and more production is the way. I’m not optimistic with the democrats in control. As far as the pot industry is concerned, its saturated , overregulated and tough times are going to continue. Retail of small amounts seems to be the most profitable aspect for the present. Wholesale is on hard times for most.
Seems many pot smokers have turned to hard drugs.
In days gone by Pot was illegal in most states, now most are legal and those that aren’t have neighboring states with a steady supply.
Brandon’s $2T American Rescue was gas poured on an economy already recovered after the $3T earlier. Predictable outcome being overheated economy and high inflation.
U.S economy effects all economy’s for better or worse
It’s due to the Globalists reset, 2030.
They want to build back better for themselves.
You are expendable.
Anyone pay attention to Davos?
If all else, including common sense, fail then of course, blame the Liberals, who are trying to make things better, for ALL!!!!
Well, I am concerned with making things better for America and you dont do that with handouts, deficit spending and overegulation.
Throwing money you don’t have at problems doesn’t make anything better for anybody
Well, whatever you’re trying, look at the results.
More crime, homelessness, murder, poverty, addiction, trafficking, and misery.
Your turn, what’s better?
Well, in an emergency, the answer is Yes! Humboldt County has given you the option of lowering your property taxes. If your property was damaged in the last storm, they will offer assistance and lower your property taxes. That’s why your property is assessed every few years to make sure you are being fairly taxed. The Cannabis Industry is in an emergency, and we need the same kind of swift and fair reduction in taxes. If we are assessing it now the price has gone down 90% and sales of product have all but halted. We need to stop biased and punitive governance. Why is the state responding in force to help with fees, grants, waivers, etc., but our local government continues the war on drugs locally! They have mismanaged the crap out of this. We need to have one regulatory system and not managed by the County government. There is too much bias, assumption of wealth, and people helping their friends make a profit off of regulation and busts.
Uh, my land has not been assessed since ’92. They do not assess every few years, they assess at sale or transfer.
“Farmer” should read about proposition 13.
You can ask the county to re asses if your value has gone down. We did it on 3 properties
Just don’t have it be like that other one! Don’t let somebody take the mic and cry “We might even have to sell one of our properties”. That was hilarious…and devastating. Keep the professional liars on point and march out a couple of small growers who got run over by their permitted mega-neighbors (but don’t ever say that). I do have sympathy for the little people who got suckered into the permit scheme but I don’t have much for the permit pansy mega-farms who have been sending all their product to the black market. It’s weird that there is some alliance between the mega and the small since getting a permit is the only thing they have in common. The megas do not deserve tax relief after their greedy behavior in destroying their small neighbors. Yet this protest asks for relief for small and mega equally. I’m sure they will trot out the small desperate people to stoke compassion. It IS a sad story of how decent people got confused, lied to and sold a dream that would never work…but even tax relief will not save the little people. Overproduction is the killer. If you didn’t have your sales set up with old friends in other places (traditional market) and thought you would sell to some new white marketplace that the state assured you would flourish…well, that was not a good business plan.
Trusting the government is never a good business plan.
Never sign treaties with the white man.
Best response I heard from an old timer about whether or not he was going to try to get a permit
That’s exactly how I see it. The megagrowing carpet baggers are asking for tax realief and using he small farmers as a symbolic token, meanwhile the small farmers should be asking megagrowrs to support them in turn by demanding that the cap on farm size but put back in the law.
I know that the farm size cap is state law and that it would be next to impossible to overturn, and I don’t care. Anyone who chose to go legal after we knew the cap was removed is complicit in this injustice.
ffs, Farce, I know the farmer who said that. She is not a big grower and she’s a great involved community member. She did what you often advocated for. She tried to invest her money locally.
Farce is right to call out that comment. It is refreshing that someone was that honest, but not all folks will have sympathy for those who own multiple parcels and want to cry poor.
It’s definitely not, “I have to run on the doughnut tire because otherwise I can’t pay the electric bill” poor. Been there, done that. Don’t ever want to do that again.
But the idea that the County or the State is forcing small business owners to lose their businesses or sell their parcels is not good for the community. We’re not talking having to sell a vanity item like a Maserati. We’re talking having to sell investments that benefit the community. That means everyone loses.
There’s poor, and then there’s ‘dollar-store-tampon-using’ poor.
Define big.
Big enough to permit is big. The vast majority of a farm’s permitted square footage had to be verified as “preexisting.” 10k sq footage or 30k means that was your preexisting canopy! Even 5k sqft black market DEP pre 2016 was a big grow. You had to have been big to enter and afford the onerous and expensive permit process. No one joined the permit game with minimal capitol clout. That’s a given.
And multiple property ownership? That’s a luxury enjoyed by very few. Newsflash! Not everyone gets the benefit of being born into, or marrying into, (or green-rushed into) the wealth to enjoy massive, or multiple properties. Most people struggle to earn what little they have . So of course it rubbed some people the wrong way.
That comment was a stinger for the rule-abiding, non-growing, or low-key grow saps, or for the small parcel owners or for those whose property was regulated out of the game, and was especially an eye roller for someone who had never enjoyed the privilege -or responsibility- of home ownership (or a mortgage) There was a collective murmer of “gimme a break.”
Her personal situation, or great community role and likeable personality aside, flaunting your assets or bottom line is invariably going to get a reaction. That’s human nature.
At what square footage does one cross the line from small farmer to mega grower?
Overproduction is certainly a big part of plummeting values, but taxation would seem to be a different kind of burden. How does that factor into falling prices?
It hasn’t!!! That’s the majority of the complaint!!!
I have worked for several farmers over the last 2 years all of them are going out of business. My husband is a craftsmen and I can tell you it’s people like us who fell the drop out first, no one has extra money so they are not getting their deck fixed or new siding on their house. The llc I was working for closed down last year , the company I had just started working for had to let everyone go and maybe out of business by next season . We all know the tax is out of control expensive and honestly I don’t see any of that money doing any good for my community. Our town , our schools are still crap I would love to know how all that money has been being used.
Well I’ll tell you where the $ is going, it’s going to the department of cannabis control who are going around harassing all the small people to get rid of them. A lot of people can’t afford to get legal, and when they told us that they would help the small farmers get legal that was a lie. Everybody that I talk to that has been able to get legal is not satisfied. What do they get for all the money they pay? You’d think that they would at least make it easy to get rid of at a decent price. What the greedy bureaucracy has done is ruined the whole cannabis industry only allowing the corporations to survive and pushing all the small people who have been doing this for ever out of the game. It’s not only the cannabis growers that it’s hurting, it’s hurting the whole economy of Humboldt County. Haven’t they noticed? Sure they have but do they care? They sure don’t. Somebody’s palms are getting greased. This is worse than when it was illegal.
It’s still illegal. It’s only legal if you choose and wanna sell in one state. The issue is our hills mainly grow DEP but it’s hard to hide a DEP grow. Forcing a majority of DEP grows to go legal or stick out like a sore thumb. I was around when the DEPers destroyed our hills. Guess you can say full circle cause when CA went legal they got squeezed by the corporations indoor grows. As well as a rejuvenation of the true outdoor growers (illicits) who thought it a good time to produce like we did pre ’96. Then the battle for market share started when corporates started their higher than mighty spewage and the bullshit SPACs claiming hardships they endured (racial profiling doesn’t allow you to claim a hardship in the war on drugs, ffs!). Now here we are with the legal market only around 20% of all the Cannabis sold in the state.
Those that went legal claim a lot of hardships. We feel for the small farms and those that have truly suffered but ya’ll caught in the middle. It’s gonna get worse cause now those pre ’96 growers got their sights on that indoor market. 10k or less for a tax break, yes, anything else and I guarantee this legal industry will crumble and I will have no sympathy!
We illicits view this industry different but then again we are still fighting the war that was declared upon us over a federal lie while ya’ll try and play nice with the enemy.
The BOS keeps showing their true colors, convienent changes to the offset, tabling the use of generators and of course the almighty water issue which the word drought disappears when discussing mega grow permits. We will remain divided until we see fairness, otherwise, let the war rage!!
// “I guarantee this legal industry will crumble”//
While I am sensitive to the pain of the legacy grower, any indoor grower with total production costs of <$500lb — including all state and local cannabis taxes, is doing just fine and in no danger of collapse. Some are beating that production price point significantly.
One need not even grow A++ to make this work, but the product does have to stand about the common outdoor/dep mids level (which isn’t hard).
Greatly due to the absolute flooding of the outdoor/dep market (mostly mids), more and more retail customers in CA are insisting on CECF (controlled environment cultivation facility) cannabis.
As always, the pain is inflicted on those with high production costs and this will not change, but the now and future for highly efficient CECF facilities is very bright.
JB
Agreed, we ain’t after legals like you or those that understand economics such as your friends, we hope you all survive. As a matter of fact we do a lot of research and target specific areas. We know the SPAC backed players cannot handle even a 1% drop in sales and we know they need cash bad, especially right now!
As you stated its not a conspiracy that is occurring in the legal overproduction, it is a business strategy. Clearly evident because the cost to to consumer is unchanged. We cannot allow the SPAC babies a tax break! Only those that deserve which should only be for the 10k and lower cultivator.
Indoor is about (it actually has already begun) to get heavily oversupplied by the Traditional Market. Not me but the group feels if they can crash the indoor market that will have a drastic affect on the Corporations. I don’t agree, our focus over the past 8 months has been more than effective and we shouldn’t lose sight of a successful strategy, time will tell.
If you had read the reset plan, the elites want Humboldt and Mendocino turned back into a wildlife play land for themselves.
They want you moved to the cities.
THROW IT ALL IN THE BAY
Some maybe selfish and greedy, but that’s true across all for-profit industries. The issue here is the tax was not properly designed for the inevitable price collapse. Paying a tax to just grow and not on what you grew is not sustainable. Farming is a inherent challenge each time. The feast or famine phase originated from this ancient practice.
My question is why didn’t these people step up and protest when a unreasonable tax was passed to begin with? It is too late now! The larger issue of the price collapse isn’t even related to this tax.
Fortunately here in Trinity we got a modest tax passed which is based on actual sales and not just metrc transfers.
Over regulation and playing favorites didn’t help.
Go back in the cold Annie, come back with a better attitude.
Maybe all the growers should have saved some money from last year’s insanely high prices? Hold off on buying the f35000000 triple dually that they think they’re sooooo cool driving around. They already save a ton of money with labor hiring poor foreigners to do all the grunt work. Just like Amazon get rich off poor people. They sure didn’t complain then. Or the past 20 years of making who knows how much money. I guess prices are really low this year most likely from the massive grows down south and in Oregon according to YouTube. Delaying the taxes isn’t going to fix that. There’s too much weed period. If you can’t make money at 350 a pound or whatever it’s going for looks like the party is over. No more Costa Rica or making money off poor people pretending your some spiritual yuppie boooo hoooo
jealousy never wears well. you may want to tighten your Belt. next year’s public budget is not looking good. 30% less.
Voters were asked to allow legalized grow operations in exchange for the tax revenue. Only the voters should be authorized to rescind the deal
Makes sense in a democracy.
10k a below cultivators should get a tax break. Any other tax offset will just help the corporations. This grassroots movement will be used to help more people who do not deserve relief. It will have a negative effect on small mom n pops if given to cultivators over 10k, don’t be fools!
The Suspend Measure S campaign asks the HumCo Board of Supervisors to:
“The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors may repeal this Chapter, or amend it
Whatever the BOS decides regarding doing away with Measure S cannabis tax, Michelle bushnell should be recusing herself from ANY discussion or Vote on this matter given her blatant Conflict of Interest. She and her family are actively directly involved in growing cannabis and any vote she takes and all of her votes she has has taken so far has completely benefited her personal bottom line regarding her cannabis operations. ( 50,000 sq ft boot leg farm, 50,000sq ft Cronic Creek, just to name two)
bushnell has been in complete violation of being transparent and continues to violate Conflict of Interest laws . She is being investigated by the FPPC for her violations and corruption.
when is the media going to start reporting on all of her conflict of interest votes, and all of her corrupt bullshit?
lol, umm, yea, weed has been a part of our political landscape for a tad bit. Kinda hard to be a conflict of interest seeing how I don’t know many families that don’t have some connected dot to the industry whether legal and illegal. At least with Michelle the Rough Road Ahead sign on AP got put back up. It’s progress and I ain’t seem a gunshot in it but course I ain’t drove by in 5 days. I’ll let ya know tomorrow if all is intact then we can consider us properly represented, lol.
Bushnell is a politician, Bushnell pays Measure S taxes on at least two of her 50,000 sq ft each cannabis farms , and as “Supervisor” she would not be allowed to discuss or to vote to do away with this tax because it would obviously be a direct CONFLICT OF INTEREST and personally benefiting her and her operations. Her votes on these blatant conflicts of interest are why the FPPC is investigating her.
Larger crowd than I’d hoped but not large enough to be concerning.
it’s a bizarre idea that Republicans were somehow less heavy handed on pot growing–what a joke–the platoons of SUVs full of assault-rifle carrying camo-clad terror teams–those were Republicans. The endless helicopter overflights, the US Army occupation (illegal) of public lands. No, Republican government was NOT better.
.No,That was the government. Democrats and Republicans alike. And it is still going on. The environment is being severely damaged and the industry attracts a lot of bad people. So that’s not going to end.
Ohhh boo hoo. Maybe if they hadn’t sold out their industry in the first place then they wouldn’t be in this predicament now.
Everyone knows most of ths farms are selling the majority of their weed on the black market even though their “legit”. I know countless farmers with “licenses” and every single one of them has been selling most of their cannabis illegally on the black market. Committing crimes while they have protection from the cops and county to keep running their illegal business practices from the past. It’s all such a scam and now they want a tax break after not paying taxes for the last 20-30 years? They want 2 years with no tax? Give me a break. People grew too much. That’s poor business practice. Our county citizens shouldn’t lose our cannabis tax dollars because people are growing way too much weed. Maybe they should of downsized this year and reduced their expenses. Maybe they should of focused on growing small batches of A+ weed instead of growing literally tons of B grade outdoor. I think the free market should play out and the taxes should remain in place. What if cannabis goes for $1000 a pound next year and the supervisors sign a deal saying growers don’t need to pay taxes. Keep in mind if you have a legal farm in this current market your networth has to be at least $1,000,000(if you include the assets they own like homes, land & farms), so we’re talking about giving a tax break to the top 1% of income earners in our county over the last 10 years. That’s absurd. I think this is a very valuable lesson in economics and business for our millionaire Trustafarians out there. I’m sure most have crypto wallets that will get them through if the pickle barrel full of Benjamin’s is getting low.
So the company has two identities — one legal, the other illicit.
“We basically subsidize our white market with our black market,” said the cultivator, who agreed to speak with The Associated Press only on condition of anonymity to avoid possible prosecution.
https://fox5sandiego.com/news/california-news/double-dealing-legal-illicit-blur-in-california-pot-market/
Not sure why my last message was deleted, but it’s common practice for licensed farms to sell their product on the black market.
This one? https://kymkemp.com/2022/01/18/rally-to-suspend-measure-s-the-humboldt-county-cannabis-cultivation-tax-today-at-noon/#comment-1475256
help I’m surrounded
If they waive this years taxes …
will they ever be paid ?
probably not. It just incentives one last blow out and then in 2023 it will be the same song.
sorry for all the small crop farmers but the oversupply issue ( I’ve heard California can be supplied with 1/7 of current cannabis production )
means limited spaces on CA dispensary shelves. The taxes are definitely a huge blow.
if they are not paid is it a lien on the property?
Yes , I believe they can put a lien on the property sadly!
Definitely necessary!
My old comment came back? Nice. I have a great idea, I’ll make a promotional video about your pot farm and your son’s homemade brandy if you remove the nonsense copyright claim you filed on a video filmed by somebody else that you promised, when they said you could use it, you wouldn’t claim as yours. I’ll wear a mask and agree to disagree about vaccinations. By the way did you hear about a new vaccine made in Texas by a scientist who wrote a book about why unvaccinated people who hadn’t taken the mRNA vaccine were stupid, then made a non-mRNA vaccine he said was safer than the mRNA ones and criticized Pfizer and Moderna for not making it that way, criticized the US government for not funding him? Maybe you should report on that, he actually said in one of his statements in his interview in Scientific American that he thought anti-vaxxers would be willing to take his vaccine. I wonder why and am face planting, he also said he used the receptor binding domain and not the full spike protein which is why “anti-vaxxers” who are educated in microbiology thought the currently available vaccines were unsafe. But he wrote the f(censored) book on calling those same people stupid, yet again face planting…
I’ve never been a fan of legal weed and wish we could have settled at medical with higher prices and lower production. I don’t want my hill plastered with rows of greenhouses and acres of plants;however, I’m a tradesman and this price crash has affected my business, badly. We’re headed for dark times up here. I wish the libs could find common ground with the conservatives on this- we shouldn’t be crowing about paying “paying your fair share” and making comparisons to rich growers. We are a ALL egregiously overtaxed. We are already taxed at the levels of a socialist country, and it has made slaves of us all- especially those who are chained to traditional employment. We need to revolt together on this one. Also, the eye in the sky and over regulation of the pot industry that conservatives typically support makes no sense and is extremely hypocritical. They will come for you and your unpermitted projects too, bud. They will come for your power tools and trucks and freedoms and land. I would never rat a neighbor no matter what, and conservatives need to recognize the enemy is at their gate, too.
You signed up for u do not want to ever side with the government you all got what u deserve lol
There seem to be a glut of cannabis bureaucrats. Directors and consultants, supervisors etc. everyone’s an advisor, in a dying industry. Plus I don’t see how our local economy would benefit from deferred tax payments, so the marijuana industry would be a net negative for our local economy as I’m sure they would still benefit off the black market, free from tax burdens. Whatever, legalization wasn’t for the market anyway, it was for the citizen. It’s just a plant, grow that shit in your back yard and enjoy