Local Cultivation Tax Increase – Contact Your Supervisors!
Last week, Humboldt County cultivators received tax bills that included a notice of a 7% increase in the County’s cultivation tax. The increase wasn’t publicized in advance, but on review, Measure S appears to be written in a way that allows the County to increase taxes to adjust for inflation.
As with the recent inflation-adjusted increases in the state cultivation tax, local tax increases come at exactly the wrong time for farmers under pressure from licensing fees, regulations that are more complex and burdensome than nearly any other industry, and a small-than-expected legal market.
County supervisors have the power to roll back any increase in local cannabis taxes. If this tax increase affects you, consider contacting your supervisors to let them know how the cultivation tax increase will affect your business.Contact information for supervisors can be found here.
Humboldt Continues to Lead in Licensed Cannabis Cultivation
Throughout early 2019, when most farmers still had temporary licenses, it was widely reported that Central California had surpassed Humboldt County and the Emerald Triangle to become the new statewide leaders for licensed cannabis cultivation. In October, HCGA reviewed publicly-available licensing data and found that this shift had been overstated: by fall of 2019, Humboldt had actually surpassed Santa Barbara County to become the statewide leader in cultivation, whether measured in total acreage, total licenses, or total independent farms.
In 2020, that lead has widened even further. As of January 29, 728 independent farms in Humboldt now hold 1,265 cultivation licenses, up from 569 farms holding 1,006 cultivation licenses in October 2019. Collectively, these 728 farms make up over a third of all licensed farms in the state.
The data suggests that, despite the challenges of legalization, Humboldt County’s cannabis industry continues to collectively grow far more legal cannabis than other areas of the state, and that this collective leadership rests on a foundation of hundreds of independently owned farms.
