Humboldt Supes Revisit Cannabis Grant Program
Having changed Humboldt County’s cannabis business assistance program to help farmers pay back tax debts, the county is tweaking it again due to concerns that focusing on the debts disadvantages those who’ve paid their taxes.
The county’s Board of Supervisors revisited the previous decision at its Aug. 26 meeting.
The discussion centered on how to distribute a new round of funding for the Project Trellis Local Equity Program, with a core issue being whether the program should be limited to paying off outstanding Measure S excise tax debts or expanded to support wider business needs.
County staff cautioned that expanding the program’s scope would significantly increase the administrative workload and could slow down the distribution of the approximately $657,000 in new state funding.
The current version of the program’s manual, approved in April, restricts grant funds to covering past-due Measure S and property taxes.
But that concerns some in the cannabis community, who argue it unfairly benefits growers who owe taxes and excludes those who have remained compliant.
Ross Gordon of the Humboldt County Growers Alliance recommended that the Board adopt a broader approach.
He noted the Local Equity Program’s intent to compensate for the social and financial impacts of “the war on drugs” and questioned whether paying tax debts fulfills that goal.
“If the decision from the Board is to limit the use of those funds only to repaying county debts, it’s not really funds that are being distributed to people impacted by the war on drugs,” he said. “It’s funds being distributed to people who happen to have a debt to the county.”
The Local Equity Program’s new round of grants is funded through state cannabis tax revenue, which was also questioned.
“This money is coming from tax dollars that were generated from us, the cannabis community and now we’re going to take those funds and use taxes to pay taxes,” said Southern Humboldt Cannabis farmer Craig Johnson. “We’ve been saying that a lot in the cannabis business, that we’re constantly using taxes to pay taxes and we pay taxes on top of taxes. And more and more of us are falling away from the little bit of industry that we have left.”
In an exchange with supervisors, Gordon said compliant farmers can use some help with expanding their business activities for things like “packaging for their product so that they can have their own packaging and get into a dispensary as a branded product” or to pay for rent and capital improvements.
But funding those things will add to county administrative costs and there’s concern about staffing capacity.
To address that while also opening a new funding opportunity for compliant farmers, Board Chair Michelle Bushnell proposed maintaining the tax debt scope of the program but adding payment of state licensing fees to funding eligibility.
“It would give them an option to say, hey, I’m getting rewarded because I have paid everything, I’m up to date, I’ve done all my compliance,” she said. “The other way, they feel left out and they feel like they’re being punished because they’re current on everything. And it’s very difficult and I hear it continuously.”
Bushnell’s proposal was supported by other supervisors and unanimously approved. The program will also include paying fees charged by the Planning Department.
Also at the meeting, supervisors voted to withdraw from the California Cannabis Authority (CCA), a statewide joint powers authority seeking to assist counties with cannabis policy and data.
The county’s membership costs $28,000 a year but Planning Director John Ford said the CCA “has not continued to provide meaningful information” to the county.
Supervisor Rex Bohn, the county’s CCA representative, described the annual cost as “budget dust” but added, “the issue is we’re not getting ROI (return on investment) on it.”
The CCA was initially formed by the California State Association of Counties to address issues like cannabis banking and enforcement. But in recent years the group’s membership has dwindled from many counties down to just three, including Humboldt.
The decision to withdraw was unanimous.
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And how many years did growers not pay taxes, especially durring the high prices. Should of saved. And everyone says they sell put the backdoor anyway. Growers think they are going to get rich. Berner did though. https://youtu.be/lTB3u6fcxzY?si=ND4cfPTKc4D5o117
Not a grower. Burner is nothing more than a hype man.
Go get a late pass!
You probably overestimate the personal wealth accumulated by most growers. Besides, money earned was money spent. Any property and activities growers were involved with was taxed just like everyone else: Real property, cars, fuel, sales tax on goods purchased to support growing, wages on side business employees, even your rare Roth IRAs too, eventually. An estimated $240 million in income annually has shifted south from Humboldt, Mendo, and Trinity since our”legalization” system has taken effect. That works out to missing revenue to our counties and municipalities also.
More like set up our counties for failure. Everyone talked about how it wasn’t going to last way back in the late 90s before legalization. They brought crime and greed. Meth dealers buy stuff too. Too bad too sad
Something about the effects of local Mafia grow profits (akin to foreign-owned local business profits) the county never see/saw compared to local grow profits which remain in the county.
And yet, here we are watching greedy, legally-backed corporate “gro bros” scramble to dominate the market through manipulation, nepotism, and outright bribery. Meanwhile, the very people tasked with oversight refuse to rise to the occasion. Instead of implementing thoughtful, effective environmental management practices, they default to punitive measures that punish rather than protect.
Worse still, regulatory bodies seem more focused on generating revenue through excessive fees than on promoting best management practices. These fees don’t incentivize sustainability they penalize small growers while letting deep-pocketed operators buy their way out of accountability.
Small farmers aren’t asking for handouts they’re asking for a fair shot. They’ve built this industry from the ground up, often with more care for the land and community than any corporate-backed operation. If we don’t start supporting them with smart policy and real accountability, we risk losing not just an economic engine, but a cultural legacy.
All true! Thanks!!
Have fun at the CanbaFest everybody!! Or should we call it the “Sell-Out Permit Pansy Fest”? Maybe the “Hype and Brand” Fest”? Buncha gro-bros posturing and back-slapping, congratulating each other on parasitizing the destruction of our local economy and displaying massive ego while taking credit for what they stole…puke 🤮
I’m actually working on my farm this weekend. Doesn’t make sense for me to waste 2 days of work, $50 on gas, more $ on food, and a night at a hotel when I have this much work to do. Bucking, trimming, watering and pruning ain’t gonna take care of itself. I’m not having a booth because it hardly makes sense to sell packaged buds anymore. You’re hard pressed to get a retailer to pay you $3.50 per 1/8 bag these days. You have to front to most of them, they don’t take a whole lot, 5 pounds usually. And then you have to hound them to get paid in a month or two or more. After paying for the Mylar bags, filling them, doing the footwork to hustle up sales, fulfill them, and collect payment, you might as well just sell bulk pounds for $300 in 50 pound batches instead of trying to move the same weight through 10 different retailers. Instead of doing all that extra labor, I swing a hammer and mow laws for my side hustle. Fuck the DCC and their whack system. 90% of the time I regret getting my permit.
It seems to me that growers started suffering when each and every aspect of their business started getting taxed. The county and state thought they would make a windfall- instead they are offering grants. It doesn’t make sense. Perhaps the county and state should tax the product like they do other agriculture products. And no, I’m not in the industry. I just don’t see how they take a roaring industry, tax it to death, destroy it, then subsidize it.
It’s the communist way.
Because “That’s how we do it in Humboldt!”- ripped from a greenrusher song
One thing is absolute-Michelle Bushnell has no business being involved in cannabis-policy . A reward for paying your fees and taxes ,my gosh!
I am current on my property taxes, do I get a reward ? The reward for paying your taxes is no penalty’s ! Assistance in my opinion should go to the needy.
blob:https://kymkemp.com/931b3068-b3e1-4961-83fc-300e71ee82c0
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oOps… I’m actually not all that tech savvy… It was a GIF of the closing scene from Burn After Reading: the intelligence director asks “What did we learn?” Actually kinda fitting it failed to post, such is the fate anytime anyone tries to act too intelligent… 😅
To rephrase that prolific nihilist Dick Dawkins: “the creativity at play here is not only beyond our comprehension it is beyond our contemplation of comprehension” – Bliss
I complained about this with Trellis years ago. Their program was so ass-backwards! I could not get any money unless I was in debt! The problem at that point was that I had paid all my bills so….. ‘NOT QUALIFIED!’
Then in the next round I needed to have been busted by CAMP or someone to qualify, plus I didn’t have my permit yet, so again ‘NOT QUALIFIED!’
Trellis didn’t want to help all of us who were struggling with the OUTRAGEOUS costs of trying to get legal. Jerks.
I talked to many people (in positions of authority) about this. Trellis was the worst run program I’ve ever encountered. Their administrator (Peggy) must be someone’s relative. Nice, but not too bright. And the young person (Logan) who worked there thought he was the smartest guy in the county. An arrogant idiot.
Let’s hope they have better staff and less unrealistic regs this next time!
Really? So giving out free passes to the people who never paid and then pocketing those program subsidies might not be fair?? Who could have thought of such an accusation?!! These grossly incompetent and sleazy supervisors should all be called out for what they did. But it is just one more nail in the coffin of what was for a couple decades the most thriving economic engine in our county. They destroyed it. Yes- corporate “legalization” was gonna hurt us bad but our stupidvisors made it extremely painful for nearly all. Enjoy your poverty, everybody!
In my opinion all businesses should be taxed equally, based on revenue. If you’re operating at a loss, no tax. Get rid of all of the inspections except one audit/site visit a year, remove all the restrictions and let our community thrive again. Pretty soon there will be nobody left to tax if the county keeps it up.