The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has agreed to cut nearly in half the tax paid by local cannabis growers, offering a lifeline to growers who say they are drowning under the county and state’s taxes and fees.
Based on county figures, the cut amounts to more than $1.6 million in forgone future county tax revenue through mid-2023, when the cut is set to expire.
But many local farmers say the board did not go far enough, having pressed the county to eliminate the cultivation tax altogether.
The board’s unanimous approval of a 45% rate cut to the cultivation tax charged to cannabis growers in the county is “a step in the right direction,” said Erich Pearson, a board member of the Cannabis Business Association of Sonoma County, and owner of SPARC, a Santa Rosa-based dispensary with a farm in Glen Ellen.
The county tax on cultivation is one in a layer of local and state taxes paid by cannabis growers, who say they face a heavier tax burden than other farmers.
“We don’t think it’s fair,” Pearson said. “We still would like to be taxed like any other agricultural industry.”
There are 171 permitted cultivators in the county jurisdiction, and they are taxed at different rates on a per-square-foot basis for outdoor, indoor and mixed-light crops.
While lobbying the county for tax relief over the past several months, cannabis farmers have painted a dire picture of financial distress, with many saying the steep taxes and fees charged by the state and…
