SHOP OWNER: CITY BLOWING OFF MONEY
Claims millions lost in tax potential by keeping dispensary hours short
An owner of a Vallejo marijuana dispensary believes the city is blowing it by ignoring potential tax revenue from increasing pot shop hours.
U. S. Bloom proprietor Scott Foster, 69, adds that the city is not delivering the promise of putting weed revenue into law enforcement. Foster said the city isn’t using what he believes is roughly $5 million a year in marijuana tax revenue “for what they money was intended for — regulations and law enforcement.”
A significant portion of the Measure C tax money, said Foster, “should go to help law enforcement combat the black market and crime associated with it. The original use of the tax was supposed to be used for the cost creating and maintaining the regulations.”
Not so, said City Manager Greg Nyhoff through the city’s public information officer, Christina Lee, providing a printed statement from “Vote Yes on Measure C” stating: “The revenue generated would help increase city services such as public safety, libraries, senior and youth programs, and improve our streets.”
“We were all aware it was going into the General Fund,” said Vallejo City Councilmember Hakeem Brown. “In hindsight, I think collectively as business owners in this community, we would have liked to see that funding going toward keeping the community safe while investing in our kids and education. There is a lot of crime in the community, a lot of gun vi
olence. I definitely wish that some of the money had been earmarked to go into areas of real need.”
For the fiscal year 20192020, the city secured $2.96 million in Measure C funding, according to Nyhoff.
Foster opened U.S. Bloom in 2011 and said he’s paid between $ 4 million and $4.5 million in taxes to the city.
Foster also believes that if the city increased the hours dispensaries can open — currently limited to closing by 8 p.m., though the state allows 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. — “that it would add an additional taxable sales of $600,000 a year to the city. And that doesn’t include the other 10 clubs.”
“This is an easy windfall for the city to generate revenue, that, if used for what it was intended for, could save lives and add to the safety of our community,” Foster said.
Foster said he realizes some citizens wouldn’t be happy extending dispensary hours.
“Cannabis is just as legal
as alcohol, which is available at 7-Eleven, restaurants, bars, grocery stores and gas stations from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.,” Foster said. “And, by the way, alcohol sellers in this town don’t have to pay any Measure C tax to the city.”
Councilmember Rozzana Verder-Aliga said Foster has approached her and other council members requesting extension of shop hours, and though she wanted it presented at a council meeting, “due to change in staffing and COVID-19, this has stalled. I will check with the city again about this matter.”
Foster said it’s also time the stigma against marijuana ends, lamenting that “whenever there is a new brewery, distillery, winery or any other alcohol-related business open in the city, everyone from city council and City Hall is there to cut the ribbon. If it has to do with cannabis, they shy away. The elected officials in this town need to be reminded that their personal opinions need to be kept to themselves.”
Brown agrees with Foster that the hours of a dispensary should be accordance with the state, though as a
dispensary owner himself, acknowledges he would have to recuse himself if the issue came to a council vote.
“How the city came up with those hours is based on a very conservative council that used their own personal and religious beliefs. It was decided by a short- sighted council,” Brown said. “As a council member, I hear a lot of talk about ‘ our budget, our budget, our ever-shrinking budget.’ What are we doing as a council to increase the budget? What are the things we’re doing creatively? How much more revenue would that (increased dispensary hours) bring the city?”
Brown believes the council will “be taking a look” at increasing dispensary hours.
“I think it’s going to get on the agenda,” he said. “It does have to go through a process.”
Brown agreed with Foster that “we’re still dealing with a lot of stigma” with legalized marijuana.
“It’s not something we should be treating like cocaine or heroin,” Brown said.