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Letters To The Editor
Letters to Editor

Calculate The Cost Of Cannabis

 

Dear Editor,

I understand that the city of Oakdale has solicited for a few requests for proposals on the sales involving marijuana outlets in the city of Oakdale .I think planning for the retail end of the market, and its fiscal impact needs to be planned for, very soon indeed.

The city of Modesto has Measure T going on the November ballot which will impose a 10 percent tax on the gross receipts of any marijuana sales. This would be a general tax with collected revenues going into the general city fund.

This cannabis business tax would help insure that the cost of the needed expenses in the city’s administration of the marijuana end will be paid by the levy of such a tax. It would insure that current city finances allocated like for police, fire, and everything else in the current budget would have much less of a chance to be impacted on.

It should mean that other taxes will not have to be increased.

If such a tax ordinance would be offered to the city of Oakdale voters, it would most likely only need a simple majority to pass.

I can understand the reluctance of the Oakdale city government to only allow a few retail marijuana outlets. But for such, maybe such a tax should be approved by voters before the establishment of marijuana retail outlets in the city of Oakdale, just like they are asking Modesto voters to do with Measure T. So, let’s do a bit of fiscal planning for the near future.

 

Daniel Marsh