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Date: 5/2/2023
AMHERST — Following presentations and public comment on financial orders at the Town Council meeting of April 24, discussions took place ahead of a vote on the use and allocation of monies related to cannabis dispensaries.
As explained by Finance Director Sean Mangano, the order for the vote appropriates $713,451 from free cash into a special revenue fund to be used for impacts related to cannabis dispensaries.
“These are revenues the town collects that are restricted to how they can be used so we want to get them out of free cash and into a special revenue fund,” Mangano offered.
Councilor Pam Rooney inquired about the impacts related to cannabis and the use of the monies.
“We understand from all sources that the impacts, the legislation, the punishment and whatever related to cannabis has directly impacted many in the community negatively, the question that I would raise again is that I’d like to hear a little more explanation between what is the impact revenue fund and our taxes generated by cannabis sales, knowing that the money generated by cannabis sales is going into our reparations fund, has there not been any discussion at all about something like this cannabis impact money also being contributed in part to that fund?” she asked.
In response, Mangano said there has not been a precedent they have found in Massachusetts where that particular action has been taken so they have no model to work from.
“There’s some gray area when it comes to these impact fees,” he said.
Mangano explained that what the town is putting towards reparations is not the taxes but a like amount from free cash placed into a stabilization fund for that purpose. As opposed to taxes, the fees were outlined in individual host community agreements that each dispensary signed with the town when they first got their right to operate.
“The law says the funds must be used to basically mitigate the impacts of the dispensaries,” Mangano added.
Mangano also pointed out that Amherst has been very cautious with those funds and so far, has not used any of the money to date.
“Every community is a little different because the dispensaries have different impacts.” he said.
Town Manager Paul Bockelman added that some towns are having a broader interpretation of how these funds can be used.
“This is a developing field in terms of how people are allocating their cannabis impact funds,” he said.
Bockelman said putting the money into a separate fund as proposed is a good move as it provides the ability to point to how it was allocated and how it was used.
Continuing the topic of allocation, Council member Dorothy Pam inquired about using funds for youth activities and support services related to the use of cannabis in the community.
“There’s lots of ideas like that that sound like they could be viable,” Mangano responded, while also noting that there are strict time limits concerning how long the [cannabis dispensary] host community impact fees can be collected.”
“This is a revenue source we expect will dwindle in the coming years to eventually be zero…or very little,” Mangano said.
A unanimous vote in favor to adopt the order followed.