cannabis sales hit 1BILLION dollars in MA
Those of you who followed my work in changing the laws regarding marijuana will probably remember me writing about the amount of money retail sales would bring in. In today's MWDN a honest look at what has come in so far... and it's amazing. A few towns have reaped huge financial benefits at a time when local receipts have dramatically dropped from the bottom line. Here in the Ham, talk from the council chair has mentioned the revenue from marijuana sales to off-set the CPA tax increase that will be in tax year 2021 going forward but the Mayor may have different thoughts. It's worth noting that the chief of staff for the City Manager Jacob Sanders was quoted as saying “It’s helpful to have, but it starts from the will of the voters and what they wanted in Massachusetts and they voted for cannabis which had the added benefits of additional revenue for the city.”
“We’ve been very fortunate that we’ve had Caroline’s Cannabis operating in the town of Uxbridge. Caroline’s been a great neighbor and business partner,” Uxbridge Town Manager Steven Sette said of the town’s first retail marijuana store.
Sette reported the town has received roughly $400,000 from marijuana businesses — there are now three operating in town — in a year, and that the town lifted the cap on manufacturing and cultivation businesses to be more accommodating to the industry.
“From the beginning, Uxbridge has welcomed cannabis businesses to the town,” Sette said. “We have worked with them through the licensing process, and we have locations for people to operate and build out their facilities.”
It was a similar story in Leicester, home of one of the first two retail marijuana stores on the East Coast.
“It has created positive cash flow for the town,” David Genereux, town administrator in Leicester, said.
Leicester has received a total of $885,048 in local option sales tax from marijuana so far, Genereux reported.
And in Worcester, Jacob Sanders, chief of staff for City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr., said the $3 million in revenue the city has so far received from legal cannabis was particularly helpful this year.
“Revenue’s always helpful, especially in a time like COVID,” Sanders said. “It’s helpful to have, but it starts from the will of the voters and what they wanted in Massachusetts and they voted for cannabis which had the added benefits of additional revenue for the city.”
Two adult-use marijuana dispensaries opened on Nov. 20, 2018 — Cultivate in Leicester and NETA in Northampton — becoming the first legal marijuana retail stores on the East Coast.
In the first year of sales (November 2018-19), 33 marijuana retailers generated $393.7 million in gross sales and ultimately rang up $444.9 million for the full 2019 calendar year, according to the CCC.
Since Jan. 1, dispensaries have already surpassed the previous year’s revenue, even with two months of closure due to COVID-19, generating $539 million in gross sales, the commission added.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 12:40 PM
12 Comments
12 Comments:
And Framingham is not the recipient of much of this because of people like Judy grove and Dennis giombetti spewing false information. They must be Trump supporters and just to be clear that is not meant as a compliment
Curious if anyone has any idea of how much we have received both in host agreements and in tax revenue. If we don't know that, why don't we know that? Is someone cooking the books before she leaves Framingham?
That last question is the big one How big a deal is it that Framingham dragged their feet if there is not much money involved. Anyone know when the new store in the old Papa Ginos is going to open. We have 3 stores now, right? ANd I have to say obviously all those bullshit concerns about traffic jams were just another batch of fake info to scare people off of these safe and well regulated stores.
according to the CFO, we have only received 50k in host agreement payments. We have not received any tax revenue from any of the shops that I know of.
Nova Farms (Papa Gino's)looks like they are ready to open but I've not seen any press release on their grand opening. They will be the third retail shop open, all within a mile and a half on Rte 9.
Like the post said, Worcester got 3 million, Leicester got 885K and Uxbridge got 400K. And the reason they got so much money was that the shops were opened a full year and half before ours. How much money did Framingham miss out on is not certain, but I submit it's a lot more than nothing that we have now.
With budgets now decimated due to Covid issues, I am sure the city is sorry for their delays, but we will never hear those who implemented and allowed those delays address the issue. Because of the will of the voter they were not able to prevent shops from coming to Framingham and they knew they would not be able to do that, so all they did was decrease the amount of financial benefit the city would receive and there is no way in ight of the position we now find ourselves in financially to say that was a wise decision. I paid close attention to this, as did many many others here and I was appalled at the false information being spewed by people like Grove and Giombetti. I thought of them as being pretty intelligent, but anyone who was saying what they were saying clearly is not all that smart. Even he NIH said pot is not dangerous. How the hell do those two hold their heads up when they are claiming they are smarter than the scientist? Sound like anyone else we all know? I have lost all respect for those two bozos, as have many, many others here in Framingham.
1 billion is a lot of dollars no matter who you are. Kudos to those communities smart enough to see pot shops as a great income generator to lessen the tax burden on their residents. To those communities like Framingham who chose not to welcome them as an asset to the city, I think that is a very good reason to question the rationale of those pushing for no pot shops, or for delaying those pot shops supposedly on our behalf and to question their positions on every other decision impacting residents. Our income if we had a few more shops up and running would go a long way to cover our budget deficits and feed our hungry. But here in Framingham we would rather up the tax burden with CPA then feed the families who are suffering immensely during this pandemic. What does that say about the elected and residents of Framingham? Nothing good, that's for sure.
very good points from all of you. And talking about feeding the hungry... I heard that we have over 650 homeless kids in the school system that we know of. How freaking sad is that? No wonder all of our students get free meals.
And did anyone notice... Phil O asking the COO about the pot shops? Of coarse the COO blamed the State for the stores not open. The Host agreements were signed by the Mayor, April, Oct, July of 2019 over 2 and a half years after the ballot question passed in Nov of 2016. The operators couldn't do anything with permitting/build out or buying until the host agreements were signed. The State's(Cannabis Control Commission) did have it's share of delays, but far and away the most important delay was the elected or appointed Framingham officials.
But all those who opposed this regret it now in light of budget shortages or at least I hope they regret their obvious error. This is money in the bank for all those communities that moved quickly on approving these shops
And today I read that the Cannabis Commission is issuing 56 licenses in Boston. The income they are going to receive is huge.
What do you think of the new regs released today about delivery services? Will that hurt the stores here in Framingham?
I admire what you have done here. I like the part where you say you are doing this to give back but I would assume by all the comments that this is working for you as well.
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