Checked in with the Assessors office today to inquire what $1.00 on tax rate raises:
$622,843.00, so an override to cover school and ALS funding increases (proposed so far), it will be a bit over $1.00 on the tax rate. There is a police station project to get funded and the new school is scheduled to open in the fall of 2019. So expect the worse case and hope for some other options to materialize.
For all those pro-pot folks who hope to reap taxes from pot-shops:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-pot-tax-reduction-california-legislature-20180315-story.html
It's called "bait and switch"!
The only reason for Marijuanas prices to be competitive with the Black Market is government regulation and tax.
ReplyDeleteWhen you mandate the most expensive means to grow, manage, track, sell a product that everyone touching wants "drug money" profits from you keep the black market functioning...........which is of coarse the entire point.
How much of a decline would the DOJ need in funding if marijuana was made as legal as tomato?
So, yes, if the people allow it the government will make it so the black market thrives. One hand washes the other.......
Bob M - you're the guy always touting the benefit of pot shops. The benefit being tax money for the town. California is already under pressure to cut taxes on pot. Why won't the same thing happen here?
ReplyDeleteOh, not to worry ! The meals tax will save the day !lol !!
DeleteAnon, I dont know, but the 3% local tax is far less than Californias rate.
DeleteIt's a new business that doesn't require anything that Templeton doesn't have. We have many advantages in town not the least being the municipal light. We are a right to farm community and many neighbor communities are placing moratoriums which might place them off the table for any revenue.
I'm all for the meals tax and the marijuana tax. I'm also up for any suggestions from anyone on other means to increase revenue or decrease spending realistically.
ReplyDeleteRight now we are not much better off than we have been for the past twenty years. In the same spot, not enough revenue and too many expenses ! We need any business, we have to take the burden off the homeowners some how, some way. The only thing left is to have the State cut local aid, I hope that does not happen, but time will tell.
DeleteBob M - it would be a big problem if Templeton passed a local pot tax, because our Dear Leaders are spendthrifts.
ReplyDeleteThey spend every dime of projected revenue. As we can see from California's example, the revenue from pot has been over stated just to get people sucked in.
If the taxes from pot can't be counted on, there is no benefit to honeowners. It will just get pissed away rather than reduce the tax rate.
Anon:
ReplyDeleteSo is your suggestion to do nothing? To me it sounds like your looking for a problem when one doesn't exist.
Just a side note. California has had legal taxable marijuana for 2 months. To say anything about it success or failure as finite is well, premature at minimum.
ReplyDeleteDid you read the link I sent? The pot growers and sellers are crying because they can't compete. The legislature is moving to wave fees and lower taxes.
ReplyDeleteAll you pro-pot folks promised big gobs of revenue from legalization. Looks like it was a fairytale. And, for Templeton, real bad if the BOS and the TA build pot revenue into the budget. If they can't build it into the budget, it's just pissed away.
“Tax revenue should not be the driving force behind marijuana legalization. At its heart, the debate over marijuana legalization should be about whether a tax and regulate system is a better way to govern marijuana sales than prohibition and incarceration. We should be focused on what systems can best maintain a safe community, create an equitable justice system, protect public health, positively impact the economy, avoid costs, and provide sound drug policy.”
ReplyDelete[Andrew Freedman is the former Director of Marijuana Coordination for the state of Colorado; and a principle at the consulting firm, Freedman & Koski, Inc.
If you wish to debate the benefits of pot shops on these issues, then that is one thing.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the pot people have daid, for years, to tax the shit out of pot in order to gain support. And Bob M. has posted about the tax benefits to Templeton if we become "the pot exit" on Rt. 2.
I'm not a big fan of government taking a huge bite out of any business. I'm just pointing out that the revenues from taxing the pot shops will never live up to their promise. Once California reduces their pot taxes, the black market will just lower the price further. And pot heads will choose cheaper over legal.
“ pot heads” get back into your time machine and set it for 1950 where you will feel more at home I assert in your descriptive language.
ReplyDeleteSeems like you need that time machine to take you back to that mythical 'Great' America again.
Delete7:26 can't respond to anything except my choice of an accurate description? They think about it day and night. They are pot heads, choosing to engage in illegal activity to get high. Personally, I think they should be free to smoke pot. But I don't admire them for it. And I am against growing government in order to make pot legal.
ReplyDeleteA moonshiner has to have skill to make his product. A pot grower, not so much. As they are fond of saying, it's a weed.
Let me be clearer then. You are not in the majority as just demonstrated by our democracy in the way of the ballot box. I never alluded that you needed to “ respect “ them . I said your language is more representative of thoughts not in the present but in the past. I personally don’t respect people who drink alcohol and engage in illegal activity because the affect of this taxed item gives them false courage to do so.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what ballot box you mean.
ReplyDeletePeople correctly use the word "drunk" to deride someone who has allowed booze sway over his life. Noone admires that. Same for pothead. Pot is still illegal. Someone who took the risk, for thirty, forty or fifty years, to smoke pot, is a pothead. They chose illegal pot over following the law. Pot obviously held sway in their life. Medical marijuana is a joke. I know people who got prescription pot. They are pot heads who smoked it long before it became medicine. Every one of them smoked in high school. Fifty years later, they still smoke.
You anonymous are like the last dying smell of the Nixon admistrarion .
ReplyDelete“A ballot box is a temporarily sealed container, usually a square box though sometimes a tamper resistant bag, with a narrow slot in the top sufficient to accept a ballot paper in an election but which prevents anyone from accessing the votes cast until the close of the voting period.”
Ballot box - Wikipedia
See Massachusetts vote roll for results
I know your type - can't rebut facts.
ReplyDeleteI attended a Cannabis Convention in Hawaii. It was a two day event with over a thousand people attending. There were classes every day to explain the health benefits of cannabis. I looked around me and the room was full of middle age and older people who were looking for relief from their various physical problems. Oh my, no pot heads ? No, just people looking for a better way to treat their depression, ptsd, their fibromyalgia etc. The list is huge and so is the ignorance on the subject. Bev.
ReplyDeleteJust addressing for a moment the above “ medical marijuana is a joke “ comment . Seems to me from a humanistic point that denying a cancer patient or someone who is dying of a terminal disease etc a medicinal plant that has been proven to have medical efficacy is cruel.
ReplyDeleteThis has already been decided by ballot initiatives in more states than this one.
Perhaps Templeton should put even more money into public education than even the latest proposed modest budget request.
Excuse me, but a 7.7% increase is not modest when compared to inflation. Then you can add the interest costs on the new school to get a more accurate number of the increased cost of schools.........modest......lol
DeleteWillful ignorance isn't something I'm going to attempt to inform. I'm glad Anon heard and read my posts. I have noticed that no suggestions on increasing revenue or decreasing expenses have come but only anger and name calling.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 936 here - I have to say Bob this should not surprise anyone here that there is no substantial economic and fact based arguments made on this blog. If have been following along as I have been it’s mostly a provocative and carefully worded post followed by rebuttals and some light humor and ignorant comments.
ReplyDeleteI disagree............
ReplyDeleteanon936 again - With what Bob? Which part ?
ReplyDeleteanon 936 : mummy definitive no - is not accurate I will concede that as I have read some lately that give me hope. Unfortunately it looks like those individuals have felt unwelcome and rightly so I believe.
DeleteI apologize for my horrific spelling errors - Apple has it’s own brain. I meant to say my definitive ... not mummy .
DeleteJust with your general premise regarding this blog.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete