By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph city officials have decided against pursuing an extra tax on marijuana sales.
The St. Joseph City Council has declined to take advantage of a provision in the constitutional amendment approved by voters that allows municipalities to impose an extra three-percent tax on recreational marijuana sales.
City Manager Bryan Carter says the council passed for the time being.
“Really, for a couple of major reasons. One being that we just came off the police sales tax and we’re getting ready to go through the CIP process, which is an incredibly important process for us and that will likely be before voters in August or possibly November of this upcoming year,” Carter tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “We want to be careful about how many taxes we throw out there and how quickly that happens.”
Carter says city council members have decided to focus on the Capital Improvements Program. Carter says the city council is cautious of sales tax fatigue.
“We want to be careful about how many taxes we throw out there and how quickly that happens,” Carter explains. “While this would be a sales tax specifically on one product and wouldn’t necessarily affect the bulk of the community, it is nonetheless a tax and we want to be cognizant of that.”
Estimates of what such an additional sales tax would bring in to the city is hard to come by, according to Carter. The city sales tax on medical marijuana sales is estimated to generate $130,000 to $150,000 a year.
Carter says the city legal team is reviewing city ordinances to see what changes need to be made in light of the amendment’s passage. Employment policies also need to be reviewed.
“The city, historically, had a very broad policy against any sort of illegal substances,” Carter says. “Now that marijuana’s been legalized and furthermore now that a few protections have been added associated with marijuana, we’re doing a deep dive in our policies to figure out what we can do and what we need to do.”
Carter says St. Joseph will be reviewing its smoking and health ordinances as well. Anti-smoking ordinance only refer to tobacco use without mention of marijuana use.