Challenges loom after passage of Sonoma County cannabis tax

Guy Kovner, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Setting fair and stable tax rates and assisting about 2,000 displaced marijuana growers were among the issues facing Sonoma County a day after voters approved a cannabis business tax that will initially raise more than $6 million to cover the costs of regulating the newly legal pot industry.
A whopping 72 percent of voters approved Measure A on Tuesday, allowing the county to collect up to 10 percent of the revenues from marijuana growers and other businesses, including dispensaries and manufacturers of an increasing array of cannabis-based products.
The local vote followed California’s passage of Proposition 64, legalizing adult use of marijuana in November, and the Board of Supervisors’ adoption a month later of zoning rules that allow commercial pot cultivation on agricultural and industrial land outside the county’s nine cities.
But the critical details of cannabis regulation have yet to be determined as the county enters what Board Chairwoman Shirlee Zane on Wednesday called “uncharted territory.”
Read more at: Challenges loom after passage of Sonoma County cannabis tax | The Press Democrat