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While recreational cannabis has been legal in California for over a year, the City of Morgan Hill is still testing the waters on whether to jump headfirst into the green gold rush.
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The Morgan City Council on Feb. 7 approved moving forward with a community survey to examine potential revenue options for cannabis businesses.
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San Mateo-based Godbe Research will conduct the survey on a contract not to exceed $30,000. The survey is expected to start in March, with findings to be presented to the city council in May.
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Councilman Rene Spring said he is looking forward to getting feedback on whether voters would approve of a special tax measure for cannabis businesses.
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“If our voters would not support such a special cannabis business tax, I won’t be in support of cannabis-related business in our city either, as it only would lead to additional costs with no additional tax money coming in from those businesses to offset those costs and add additional tax income for the city on top of that,” Spring said.
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Around 58 percent of Morgan Hill voters approved of Proposition 64 in 2016, which made it legal for adults 21 and over to buy, possess, use, share and transport up to one ounce of cannabis. The law also allows for personal cultivation of up to six plants for personal use.
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Councilwoman Caitlin Robinett Jachimowicz said that while the majority of voters approved Proposition 64, the law allows for local regulation and control.
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“Just because we know the majority of voters wanted to legalize the use of cannabis, this does not tell us how they expect cannabis to be regulated in their individual communities,” Jachimowicz said. “Each of our communities is unique and each city is faced with the task of determining how the industry will best fit into our landscape.”
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The council updated its cannabis ordinance in July 2017 to clarify that local restrictions apply to both medical and recreational cannabis sales, cultivation and distribution. The city has had a ban in place for around 10 years.
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Spring is in support of allowing cannabis businesses in town so long as the city can control and tax them.
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“With our voters approving of Proposition 64 with a clear majority, the people have spoken,” Spring said. “We have to respect that, and we have to make the best out of this new reality. I would rather put meaningful controls in place for cannabis-related businesses and to tax them appropriately to use that tax money to offset any costs, to hire more police officers, and to use for education purposes.”
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The community survey is expected to evaluate local voter interest in the cannabis industry to include deliveries and retail sales, receptiveness to taxation and at what threshold, statistically valid controls for survey bias, and test different audiences. Survey questions are still being developed.
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“The survey will be using a random sampling of registered and unregistered voters in Morgan Hill so that the council has a broad perspective on this important policy issue,” Morgan Hill Public Information Officer Maureen Tobin said.
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Jachimowicz said she hoped the survey would help the city get a pulse on community opinion on the more nuanced aspects of Proposition 64.
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“I am hoping for direction from the community as to how they think the law can best be implemented in our city,” she said.
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Come May, Morgan Hill could be one step closer to welcoming a rapidly expanding industry into city limits.
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Said Spring: “It could be a great opportunity for our city if implemented right. Let’s change the stigma of cannabis and its use. Prohibition has never worked!”
