Following a change to the legal status of marijuana, The City Council of Cape Girardeau, MO has proposed a 3% sales tax on adult-use marijuana. This new municipal tax levee is not applicable to the already existing 4% state tax on medicinal marijuana.
This sales tax is expected to be called to a vote on April 4th, 2023.
If adopted, the revenue expected is estimated at around $153,660 annually. The new funding is going to be allocated to mental health, drug treatment/prevention, and the police department. With, not more than, 1/4th of the funding going toward the police department. Three percent is the maximum allowed municipal tax rate by the State of Missouri.
This three percent tax is being implemented and discussed in several local cities & counties such as; St. Francois County, Sikeston, Columbia, Perryville.
This sales tax is in addition to the Missouri state-wide sales tax of 6% on Recreational sales.
The following will be the question on the ballot in April:
"Shall the City of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, impose a sales tax in the amount of three percent (3%) on all tangible personal property retail sales of adult-use marijuana sold in the City of Cape Girardeau, Missouri? Not more than one-quarter of the monies collected by the City of Cape Girardeau from this tax shall fund the police department, subject to appropriation by the Cape Girardeau City Council, for mental health and drug treatment and prevention. The police department may partner and provide grants to not-for-profit organizations for mental health and drug addiction treatment programs certified by the Missouri Department of Mental Health located in the City of Cape Girardeau." —The City of Cape Girardeau
The next Cape Girardeau City Council meeting will have the second & third reading of a bill involving the decriminalization of Marijuana in accordance with Amendment 3.
Several local dispensaries were contacted for comment on this story. However, Bloom, Greenlight, and Good Day Farms declined to comment.
