A California legislator announced a bill on March 24 to give the legal cannabis industry a tax break from the state’s high taxes as retailers struggle to survive a growing threat from the black market.
Assemblyman Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) introduced Assembly Bill 564 to prevent the state’s scheduled cannabis tax increase in July that “would devastate California’s legal cannabis industry by forcing many small businesses to close and driving even more consumers toward the illegal market,” according to a news release Monday.
The state planned to increase taxes on dispensary sales from 15 to as high as 19 percent—a 27 percent increase—starting July 1….