POT TAX READY IF WE EVER NEED IT

Stockton Voters Make It Clear: Future City Businesses Should Share
Their Revenue

STOCKTON - California voters last week were not ready to expand legal
marijuana for recreational use.

But taxing pot: Voters in Stockton and elsewhere were
enthusiastically behind such measures.

Nearly 67 percent of Stockton voters approved Measure I, which allows
the city to levy a 2.5 percent tax on sales at medical marijuana dispensaries.

It also allows a 10 percent tax on all other marijuana businesses
should voters legalize pot for nonmedical uses in the future.

For now, that won't happen. Roughly 54 percent of voters statewide
rejected Proposition 19, the initiative that would have legalized
recreational marijuana.

What it means for Stockton: The city can now move forward with taxing
the future medical pot dispensaries should any apply to operate under
Stockton's new regulations.

But if proponents of recreational marijuana succeed at legalizing it
in the future - and they've already indicated they will try again -
Stockton will not have to go back to voters to approve a new tax.

"We wrote (the measure) that way on purpose, because you just never
know whether there will be future legislation," said City Attorney
John Luebberke.

That voters in Stockton and beyond would reject legalizing marijuana
beyond medical use but vote to tax it was not a surprise to Dale
Gieringer, the California director of the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

"(Voters) don't want it to be legal," Gieringer said. But their
attitude is, "If we're going to have it, we should tax it," he said.

If anything, taxing medical marijuana adds more legitimacy and
acceptance to the practice, Gieringer said.

Across California, voters in other cities passed measures similar to
Stockton's.

In Sacramento, the city can now levy a tax of up to 4 percent on
medical pot outlets. Berkeley's tax is 2.5 percent, and in Oakland, a
1.8 percent tax rate increased to 5 percent.

With the tax approval, Stockton is inching closer to regulating and
making money off of medical marijuana dispensaries. City leaders in
August approved rules to regulate those operations.

The restrictions cap the number of dispensaries in the city limits at
three, with a future limit of one per 100,000 residents as the city grows.

There are other restrictions on where the outlets can locate, and
dispensaries must obtain a $30,000 operator's permit in addition to other fees.

Operators who want to open a dispensary in Stockton must apply by
Nov. 29. So far, no applications have been submitted, said Deputy
City Attorney Guy Petzold.