Sacramento, California, Marijuana Cultivation Tax, Measure Y (June 2016)
| Measure Y: Sacramento Marijuana Cultivation Tax |
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| The basics |
| Election date: |
| June 7, 2016 |
| Status: |
 DefeatedMajority required: 66.67% |
| Topic: |
| Local marijuana tax |
| Related articles |
| Local marijuana tax on the ballot June 7, 2016 ballot measures in California Sacramento County, California ballot measures |
| See also |
| Sacramento, California |
A marijuana cultivation tax measure was on the ballot for Sacramento voters in Sacramento County, California, on June 7, 2016. It was defeated.
| A yes vote was a vote in favor of increasing the tax on marijuana cultivation and manufacturing businesses from 4 percent to 5 percent, with revenue dedicated to children and youth services. |
| A no vote was a vote against increasing the tax on marijuana cultivation and manufacturing businesses from 4 percent to 5 percent. |
A two-thirds (66.67%) vote was required for the approval of Measure Y.
Election results
| Sacramento, Measure Y | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
| No | 33,378 | 34.14% | ||
| Yes | 64,394 | 65.86% | ||
- Election results from Sacramento County Elections Office
Text of measure
Ballot question
The following question appeared on the ballot:[1]
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To create a funding source dedicated to children and youth services, including homeless and foster youth, shall a 5% business operations tax on gross receipts of marijuana cultivation and manufacturing businesses be imposed, generating revenues potentially in the millions of dollars annually, to be used for children and youth services in the City of Sacramento?[2] |
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Impartial analysis
The following impartial analysis of the measure was prepared by the office of the Sacramento City Attorney:
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Measure Y has been placed on the ballot by the Sacramento City Council. Measure Y, if approved, would enact an ordinance that amends the City of Sacramento’s existing business operations tax for certain marijuana-related businesses and establishes a special fund in the city, to be known as the children’s fund. Currently, the City of Sacramento imposes a business operations tax on all “marijuana businesses” operating in the city. The maximum business operations tax rate on marijuana businesses is 4% of gross receipts. The tax revenue goes into the city’s general fund. Under Measure Y, any person engaged in a “marijuana cultivation business or a marijuana manufacturing business” would be subject to a 5% tax on gross receipts, rather than the 4% applicable to other marijuana businesses. “Marijuana cultivation business” means a business involving the planting, growing, harvesting, drying, curing, grading, or trimming of marijuana; “marijuana manufacturing business” means a business producing, preparing, propagating, or compounding manufactured marijuana. The city council would have the discretion to lower or raise that rate from time to time, not to exceed the maximum rate of 5%. If Measure Y is approved, the business operations tax revenues received from marijuana cultivation businesses and marijuana manufacturing businesses would go into a new children’s fund that is separate from the city’s general fund. Children’s fund monies may be used for services that promote the positive development in the education, career, and life of children and youth (ages 0-24); technical assistance and capacity-building for service providers; city fund-related administrative expenses (not more than 10% for this purpose); and evaluation of the services funded (not more than 5% for this purpose). Children’s fund monies may only be used by city departments that provide services for children and youth, and taxexempt organizations that provide services to children and youth. After deducting the amounts spent on administrative expenses and service evaluation, 70% of the fund monies must go to these tax-exempt organizations. Monies from the children’s fund will not replace monies from the city’s general fund allocated for children and youth services in the adopted fiscal year 2016-2017 budget. Measure Y requires to the city council to establish an oversight committee to review the revenue and expenditure of monies from the children’s fund. The tax on marijuana cultivation businesses and marijuana manufacturing businesses proposed by Measure Y is a special tax because the tax revenues received could only be used for the purposes described in the ordinance. A “yes” vote is in favor of approving the ordinance amending the business operations tax for certain marijuana-related businesses and establishing the children’s fund. A “no” vote is against approving the ordinance. The ordinance will take effect only if two-thirds of the voters voting on Measure Y approve it.[2] |
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| —Sacramento City Attorney[1] | ||
Full text
The full text of the measure is available here.
Support
Supporters
The following individuals signed the official argument in favor of the measure:[1]
- Jay Schenirer, Sacramento City Councilmember
- Christina Fa, M.D., Pediatrician, Well Space Health
- Chris McCarty, Director, Sacramento Children’s Home
- Jessie Ryan, Trustee, Sacramento City Unified School District
Arguments in favor
Official argument
The following official argument was submitted in favor of the measure:[1]
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Vote Yes on Measure Y to help make Sacramento’s children and youth safer, healthier, happier and better educated, to give them a brighter future. When we make the lives of Sacramento’s young people better, we make Sacramento a safer, more prosperous and more hospitable place for everyone. Measure Y will provide important programs, resources and opportunities for thousands of children and youth throughout the city, especially for those most in need – like homeless and foster youth and those struggling to resist gangs and drugs. Vote Yes on Measure Y to help fill a vast unmet need for additional youth services in a city where 29% of children live in poverty, 73% qualify for free or reduced price school lunches and 64% of third graders score below proficiency for English. In a city where 25% of the population is under 18, the city spends less than one percent of its general fund on services for youth. Vote Yes on Measure Y to support community based health, after-school, literacy, recreation, youth employment and social programs that can deliver services to our children and young adults more effectively than ever before. To ensure quality, program grants will be competitive and evaluated – and monitored by a community oversight committee. “Public safety is our city’s highest priority and why most of the city’s budget goes to police and fire services,” says Derrell Roberts of the Roberts Family Development Center. “By investing more in our children, we can keep them out of police cars and in schools, internships and homework centers.” Measure Y won’t raise your taxes! It will be paid for by a 5% tax on the cultivation and manufacture of legal marijuana. It will allow us to finally invest in our city’s youth and give them a brighter future. Vote Yes on Measure Y.[2] |
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Opposition
Opponents
The following individuals signed the official argument against the measure:[1]
- Jeff Harris, Sacramento Councilmember
- Angelique Ashby, Sacramento Councilmember
- Robert Gorham, Former President, Friends of the Sacramento Public Library
- Shane Singh, Parks Commissioner, City of Sacramento
- Craig Powell, President, Eye on Sacramento
Arguments against
Official argument
The following official argument was submitted in opposition to the measure:[1]
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Everyone wants to help Sacramento Youth, but this flawed measure is the wrong solution. Under this proposal the funds could not be used to improve our parks, nor keep our pools open and community centers running. It could not be used to help our struggling libraries, rebuild the youth services division of the parks department, nor to address community blight or develop jobs and support small businesses. It could not be used to address rising crime rates or to improve emergency response times. None of those priorities are funded under this proposal. Instead of serving critical needs of our city this initiative creates a new bureaucracy, and limits the City Council’s ability to make sound financial decision for the benefit of all citizens. 70% of the marijuana tax dollars would be distributed to private non-profit organizations that work with youth. Passage of this measure locks funds up forever, no matter how much revenue is generated, no matter what the critical needs are in our city. That means none of our afterschool programs; summer youth camps, gang task force programs nor summer jobs for youth would be eligible for these funds. Someday our city will face another recession. These dollars will be untouchable to prevent the type of cuts we have painfully experienced in recent years. We have yet to fully fund baseline service levels in our parks, libraries, code enforcement, animal services or any other department. We owe it to our city to meet community needs before we give funds away. A no vote on this measure is a yes to public safety, parks, libraries, communities, housing, animal care, arts, civic amenities, transportation, economic development, safe bicycle routes and many city needs. Please vote no on measure Y and tell your city leaders to use marijuana tax dollars responsibly.[2] |
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Path to the ballot
This measure was put on the ballot through a vote of the governing officials of Sacramento, California.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Sacramento Local marijuana tax. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 [http://www.elections.saccounty.net/ElectionInformation/Pages/InfoUpcomingElect.aspx Sacramento County Elections, "Presidential Primary Election – June 7, 2016," accessed June 3, 2016
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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