The Michigan Cannabis Industry Association is welcoming legislation from state Senator Jonathan Lindsey that would repeal the state’s new 24% wholesale tax on marijuana.
Lindsey announced the bill last week, seeking to undo the tax that was approved by lawmakers during last-minute budget negotiations last October. Michigan Cannabis Industry Association Director Robin Schneider tells us cannabis dispensaries have begun collecting the tax, and they saw their business down by 16% last month.
“It’s pretty bad,” Schneider said. “We’re already seeing facility closures. Our businesses prior to the tax were already operating payroll to payroll. Our margins are slim in the industry, and so what we’ve seen are mass layoffs of employees, a reduction in hours from full-time to part-time, a lot of loss of benefits.”
Lindsey, a Republican who represents all of Cass County and part of Berrien County, says the tax “represents an unnecessary growth of government” and that lawmakers need better discipline to keep the budget down. Schneider says the cannabis tax won’t fill the budget hole they think it will.
“The state is never going to get their projected $420 million for road funding because it isn’t going to exist anymore. And that’s what happens when the government singles out one industry and overtaxes them.”
Schneider says when marijuana was legalized in Michigan, the backers of the plan baked a carefully thought-out tax into the proposal, knowing that the business would have low margins. Now she says the Legislature has gone and blown that up. She says buyers of cannabis are now turning back to illicit sellers to save.
The association intends to advocate for the passage of Lindsey’s bill.
