Homeless in Arizona

The RAD 2020 marijuana initiative doesn't allow any of these taxes.

The Safer Arizona initiative that marijuana criminal defense attorney Tom Dean wrote would probably allow all of these taxes.

The Safer Arizona initiative that me, Alex, and Dave wrote would not allow these taxes.

The version of the Safer Arizona initiative me, Alex and Dave wrote didn't allow the government to pass zoning regulations aimed at marijuana businesses. Nor did it allow a tax on marijuana greater than the sales tax on food.

I was kicked off the Safer Arizona board of directors for publicly complaining that marijuana criminal defense lawyer Tom Dean was turning the Safer Arizona initiative into a mini-version of the evil Prop 205, which was written by MPP or the Marijuana Policy Project.

The RAD 2020 initiative is at the end of this article along with two other articles on the tax.

It's pretty much the same as the RAD 2018 & 2016 initiatives with minor changes

Source Also see: ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9}

Phoenix looks to tax medical-marijuana industry $50 million per year to fund public safety

Jessica Boehm, Arizona Republic Published 6:00 a.m. MT Oct. 1, 2018

Phoenix is considering a massive tax on the medical-marijuana industry that could generate $40-50 million per year for the police and fire departments.

The tax, which would be charged to companies based on the size of each of their dispensary and cultivation sites, could cost some medical-marijuana distributors more than $1 million per year.

It would be the first tax of its kind in Arizona.

"We are desperate for money," Mayor Thelda Williams said. "I'm not about to touch food tax, sales tax or property tax, so I need a whole new source."

Phoenix has faced tough budget choices for the past several years, mostly due to ballooning public-safety pension costs. This year, the city must pay more than $225 million toward its pension debt.

The tight budget has limited the city's ability to hire additional police officers and firefighters. Additionally, both the police and fire chiefs have told the council their departments need hundreds of millions of dollars in updates to buildings and equipment.

Williams is proposing the tax plan in hopes that tapping into the multi-million-dollar medical-marijuana industry will allow the city to fill the budget gaps in the police and fire departments — and she isn't wasting any time in trying to push it through.

She is bringing the tax directly to the full council instead of the more common practice oftaking it to a council subcommittee first, leaving some in the industry blindsided and concerned about the potential financialhit.

"They're trying to balance the budget on the backs of our patients," said Bill Abbott, senior vice president of the southwest region for MPX Bioceutical Corporation.

How will it work?

Arizona voters legalized medical marijuana in 2010 and the industry has boomed ever since.

Phoenix will consider a handful of tax options, but the preferred option is crafted as an annual license tax based on the size of each marijuana cultivation site and dispensary.

The Arizona Republic requested a list of dispensaries, cultivation centers and their square footage, but officials in the mayor's office did not immediately provide the information.

The proposed tax rate is $50 per square foot for a cultivation and infusion site and $280 per square foot for a dispensary or lounge. [The $280 sq ft tax would cost a Circle K, which are typically 3,500 sq feet almost a $1 million a year, or $980,000 to be exact.]

Phoenix caps dispensary size at 2,000 square feet, which means that the largest dispensaries would pay $560,000 per year.

Cultivation and infusion sites are traditionally much larger and couldbe required to pay $1 million or more based on the proposed tax model.

The money would be designated for public safety, but the council would decide specifically how the money should be spent during the budget process.

Abbott operates a 22,896-square-foot cultivation site in south Phoenix..

If the tax passes, his bill will be $1.14 million, plus another $560,000 for his north Phoenix dispensary.

He said the tax may put some dispensaries out of business, which will make it more difficult for patients to access legal marijuana.

"It will also decrease patient access, which could possibly increase black market activity. It's totally counterproductive," Abbott said.

Bill Gibbs is the co-owner of Urban Greenhouse, a 2,000-square-foot dispensary in Phoenix, which would also face a $560,000 tax.

He said businesses could be forced to raise prices for customers to make up the cost, possibly pricing some customers out of the legal medical-marijuana market..

His cultivation center is in El Mirage, but he said that if Phoenix succeeds with the tax, every city in the state will do something similar.

"There will be no place to hide. All patients will be affected," Gibbs said.

Why marijuana?

Why is the city choosing to tax medical-marijuana facilities to support public safety? That depends on who you ask.

Bryan Jeffries, the mayor's chief of staff and president of the statewide firefighter union, said the Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona has researched the impacts of medical and recreational marijuana in Denver and believes that the industry could put a drain on public-safety resources.

He said officials in Denver have seen a rise in burglaries, homelessness, fires and children mistakenly consuming marijuana.

He did not have data showing similar trends in Arizona — where recreational marijuana is not legal but pointed to some individual issues, including a fire at a dispensary earlier this year.

"We haven't been in this business very long, so we don't have years of data. But we're starting to see an uptick in these issues," Jeffries said.

For Williams, it's less about the safety concern and more about revenue potential.

She said she has a cousin in Denver who told her how much the city was bringing in through taxes on marijuana dispensaries.

"I thought... why not Phoenix?" Williams said.

Denver has a 3.5 percent special sales tax for customers who buy recreational marijuana. It does not have an extra tax on medical marijuana.

Rushed process

Jeffries said he met with several people in the industry in the past few months to discuss the tax.

But many dispensary owners and operators said they only began hearing rumblings about the tax in the past week and didn't know any details until the city posted the Oct. 2 council agenda online late Thursday.

"I really think the city needs to dust off the old transparency playbook and do things the right way," Abbott said. "It's like a surprise attack." [Sounds like the members of the Phoenix City Council want to hide the tax and their votes from the marijuana consuming public]

Abbott said he is a member of the Arizona Dispensary Association and several of his fellow operators were also blindsided by the announcement.

"This is an ambush to try to ramrod this thing through so that nobody knows about it and then all of a sudden it's just law," Gibbs said. [Sounds like the members of the Phoenix City Council want to hide the tax and their votes from the marijuana consuming public]

Traditionally, a proposed policy change would go to a council subcommittee for a public discussion and review before it would come before the full council. [Sounds like the members of the Phoenix City Council want to hide the tax and their votes from the marijuana consuming public]

Williams said she felt the change could go straight to the full council for discussion. She said Tuesday's vote will start a 60-day notice process. She said she plans to have a public hearing about the tax before the Dec. 11 final vote. [Sounds like the members of the Phoenix City Council want to hide the tax and their votes from the marijuana consuming public]

"My time is very limited as mayor. It could be over in a month and I am moving as fast as I can with my priorities," Williams said. "Anybody that knows me knows I like to stir the pot and get things done."

Williams is the interim Phoenix mayor. The mayoral election is in November, but a March runoff is expected.

Yearlong process

The research into this proposed tax began long before Williams took over as interim mayor at the end of May.

Jeffries began working on the tax about a year ago with the Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona. [Sounds like the tax was invented by a special interest group called the firemen unions and police unions]

They commissioned a public-opinion poll on the topic earlier this year that showed 60 percent of likely Phoenix voters were in favor of taxing medical marijuana facilities for public safety, according to pollster Mike Noble of OH Predictive Insights.

The firefighter group also worked with outside law firms and policy researchers to craft the new tax structure that is now going before the council.

Jeffries said the union was motivated to research the funding idea because it is concerned about officer and firefighter shortages and response times to emergency calls in Phoenix.

Board of Adjustment issues

One of those outside law firms that helped craft the tax proposal was Snell & Wilmer, a prominent Phoenix firm that has also represented medical-marijuana dispensaries. [Wonder if marijuana criminal defense attorney Tom Dean helped with this. Tom Dean has connections to legal medical marijuana cartel]

Nick Wood, who works for the firm, has represented dispensaries in the past. But earlier this year, he represented multiple individuals who claimed to be opposed to medical marijuana facilities locating in their neighborhoods.

Wood represented these individuals in cases that came before Phoenix's Board of Adjustment — a volunteer board that hears disputes about zoning cases. Jeffries was a member of that board until June.

Attorneys opposing Wood's clients alleged that elements of his cases were fraudulent and attempted to help certain dispensaries while keeping others from opening. The city launched an investigation but has not yet publicly released any findings.

Jeffries said Wood hasn't been "heavily involved" in crafting the tax strategy but "he's given some advice." Jeffries said he mostly worked with a different attorney at Snell & Wilmer.

Another person involved in the Board of Adjustment turmoil earlier this year — lobbyist Joe Villasenor — also talked to Jeffries about the tax plan before it was publicly released, though Jeffries said Villasenor was not involved in crafting it.

"Because he knows about the industry, I've asked him some questions," Jeffries said. "He's kind of helped me understand who the players are."

Jeffries said there was no connection between the Board of Adjustment allegations and the tax plan.

"There's just no there, there," Jeffries said.

Williams said that if Villasenor or Wood have been involved, she has not been party to the conversations.

Source

Phoenix Mayor proposing hefty tax on marijuana businesses for public safety funding

By: Courtney Griffin

POSTED: SEP 28 2018 07:53PM MST

VIDEO POSTED: SEP 28 2018 09:46PM MST

UPDATED: SEP 28 2018 09:47PM MST

PHOENIX (KSAZ) -- Should marijuana dispensaries, cultivation sites, retail business locations and public consumption lounges be subjected to a tax to help fund Phoenix Police and Fire Departments?

Phoenix Mayor Thelda Williams announced this idea yesterday to the city manager.

Fox 10's Courtney Griffin spoke with a small business owner and customers who say they support public safety, but also believe there is a better way to go about this.

The idea is to tax medical dispensaries to help fund public safety.

"I have no problem with that. Firemen and police don't have a problem showing up to our house when we need help, do they?" said a customer.

Mayor Williams says the police and fire departments are strained and unable to keep up with the public safety needs due to financial constraints.

"I'm very sympathetic and understand there is a deficit, and we need to cover it, and I'm happy to be a part of the solution. I just don't think the way they are doing it is far. We shouldn't carry the whole burden.

But Lilach Power, owner of Giving Tree Wellness, say sit can't be funded by small business owners, and the cost would be outrageous, forcing them to possibly leave the city or turn around and thrown that additional cost on patients.

"We are going to have to roll it on 178,000 patients in the whole state to cover for this. Some cultivation will just leave the city. Patients will go to other cities because it's going to be cheaper," Power said.

In this letter from the mayor to the city manager, there are several options on how the money would be collected. The letter states the occupational license tax in method would cost $50 per square foot for the cultivation and infusion sites and $280 per square foot used for retail or public consumption space. [Is that a yearly tax? monthly tax? One time tax?]

Another option would be 17 percent of the business gross receives from the previous 12 months or a flat rate tax.

"On the cultivation side, it can get up to almost a $1 million, $980,000 a year. It depends on the size of your cultivation. There's just no way to compete in the market if this is the kind of taxes you need to pay. They're just going to leave. We won't be able to do it," Power said.

The mayor states that as it stands now aside from some fees to the Arizona Department of Health Services, the dispensaries are only asked to pay sales tax on their retail sales activities at 2.3 percent.

The letter also mentions that if there is an emergency at a cultivation or production site, first responders have an increased risk responding due to lack of information on the current layouts, hazardous chemicals and materials because of restricted regulatory inspections that the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act enforces.

"I'm all for helping the community. I have several friends who are firefighters, you know, police officers. So I need as much help as they get get, however, this is a place where people to come from medicine and let's not exploit that. Let's meet somewhere in the middle," said a patient.

We reached out to the mayor's office, but they declined our request to comment.

Phoenix dispensary owners are gathering for an emergency meeting tomorrow to discuss their options.

As for Mayor Williams' idea, it will be presented to the city council on Tuesday and dispensary owners plan to be at that meeting.

Source

Phoenix Mayor Proposes Massive Taxes on Medical-Marijuana Dispensaries

JOSEPH FLAHERTY | SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 | 9:38AM

The mayor of Phoenix is prepared to levy a significant new tax on medical marijuana businesses that could decimate the city's dispensaries and raise costs for patients.

In a letter to the Phoenix city manager on Thursday, Mayor Thelda Williams proposed an occupational licensing tax on medical-marijuana businesses in order to fund Phoenix's police and fire departments.

The letter, obtained by Phoenix New Times, directs City Manager Ed Zuercher to place a possible tax and licensing program for marijuana-related operators in Phoenix on the October 2 City Council agenda.

The city's looking at options with big numbers, like maybe an occupational license tax based on 17 percent of the previous year's gross receipts, or a flat-rate registration tax of $560,000 on medical marijuana retail businesses and $920,000 on cultivation sites.

J.P. Holyoak, the founder of medical-marijuana supplier Arizona Natural Selections, said that a $560,000 tax on retail locations would be prohibitive.

“That puts us all out of business. Every single one of us,” he told New Times on Thursday.

"What they’re trying to do is they’re trying to tax us out of existence. They’re essentially trying to overturn the medical-marijuana law by taxing it out of existence,” Holyoak said.

In Williams' view, the city would essentially use pot to fund police officers.

“We have recently received information from the Police and Fire Chiefs indicating that our public safety resources in Phoenix are strained," Williams wrote. "It is clear to me that we are unable to keep up with the public safety needs of our City due to financial constraints.”

In order to bring in revenue for public safety, Williams added, her office has been examining new revenue sources. She proposes a new structure to license and tax medical-marijuana operators.

Williams wrote in her letter that the new tax option is meant "to protect the local concerns of public health, safety, quality of life and the well-being of the City’s residents and visitors.”

According to a report attached to Williams’ letter, the program would require an occupational license or a registration tax to operate a dispensary cultivation site, retail dispensary location, or public consumption lounge.

Several potential options for the new tax are outlined in the letter, with backup plans for a new tax in case the courts invalidate the first option.

One tax is calculated based on square footage: $50 per square foot for cultivation and infusion sites and $280 per square foot for retail locations or lounges.

If that is invalidated by the courts, a second option is listed as 17 percent of the operator's gross business receipts during the previous year. [Remember the Boston Tea Party was over a lousy .75% or 3% tax depending on which story is correct] Finally, if that possibility is ruled out, a third option is for a flat-rate registration tax of $920,000 on each cultivation site and $560,000 on each retail location or lounge.

However, if all those tax types are invalidated by the courts, the report says, Phoenix will require dispensaries transporting marijuana to use certified secure transport providers to ferry their products to and from locations with a service fee not to exceed $175 per mile.

In an emailed statement to New Times, Williams said, "Phoenix’s Police and Fire departments have many needs and face serious challenges. Today, funding for public safety is simply not where it needs to be."

"On Oct. 2, the City Council will consider a creative approach to finding a new revenue source to help fund public safety," Williams continued. "The proposal is in no way an attempt to single out medical marijuana businesses that operate legally in the city, but a proposal to establish a revenue structure for a growing industry that adds pressure to public safety.”

Despite the claim of public safety issues, though, city staff say in an October 2 agenda for the Planning and Economic Development Subcommittee, "Based on the numerous reviews of existing non-profit medical marijuana dispensaries, there are not significant public-safety issues or detrimental effects from these establishments."

Because dispensaries aren't a problem, staff recommend allowing them to extend their hours to 10 p.m.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that one registration tax proposal is based on 17 percent of the marijuana operator's gross profits during the previous year. The proposal is to tax gross receipts, not profits.

The RAD initiative would not allow these outrageous taxes the city of Phoenix wants to place on stores that sell or grow marijuana.

Source

Initiative to re-legalize Marijuana & Hashish in Arizona

100% complete re-legalization of marijuana & hashish 1. The government shall recognize that marijuana abuse is NOT a criminal problem but a medical problem.

2. The government shall NOT tax, regulate, or pass any laws governing the use of marijuana.

3. The government shall NOT assist any other government entities, such as Federal, foreign, world, Native American or state governments in enforcing any laws against marijuana.

4. The government shall NOT pass any guide lines, rules, regulations or laws discriminating against people or entities that use marijuana. Such as laws that limit a marijuana user's guns rights or parental rights.

5. Any person convicted of any marijuana offense in the past shall automatically have their criminal record cleared of those charges and automatically receive a full pardon for those charges.

6. Any person arrested for any marijuana offense in the past who accepted a plea bargain for reduced charges shall automatically have their criminal record cleared of those reduced charges and automatically receive a full pardon for those reduced charges.

7. Any government employee, agent, elected official, judge, law enforcement officer or prosecutor that arrests a person, violates a person's rights, passes a law or issues a ruling, guideline or edict that that interferes with a person's marijuana use shall be personally and civilly liable to each person for each incident for a minimum of $1 million in damages or 10 times the actual amount of damages whichever is greater. There shall be no immunity to a person who claims to be "acting in good faith" or for any other reason.

8 . All government courts shall accept cases involving marijuana use, and decide the case based on the oral, written, or other contracts of the parties involved. Courts may not refuse cases by saying that marijuana is illegal under Federal law, international law, or other laws.

9. Definitions: For this initiative the word "marijuana" refers to any form of marijuana, cannabis, hashish or hemp and includes concentrated forms such as THC, CBD, hash, hash oil, wax, shatter and all other forms. This includes any form of "marijuana use": recreational, religious, medical, commercial, industrial or any other use. This includes all parts of any plant of the genus cannabis, whether growing or not, the seeds of such plant, the resin extracted from any part of a plant of the genus cannabis; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture or preparation of such plant, its seeds or its resin; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture or preparation of such resin or tetrahydrocannabinol. Shall include, but not be limited to; all paraphernalia for marijuana use, such as pipes, bongs, cigarette papers or dabbing tools.

10. "Marijuana use" shall be defined as; but shall not be limited to: using, smoking, vaping, eating, consuming, drinking, snorting, transdermal delivery, injecting, sale, transfer, growth, cultivating, manufacture, processing, cooking, production, storage, possession, giving legal advice, transportation, or importation of marijuana.