By Josh Margolis
CHINOOK, Mont. (NMB) – In a unanimous vote on Friday, the Blaine County Commission approved a resolution to place an initiative on this year’s primary ballot that calls for a three percent local option tax on recreational and medicinal marijuana sales.
If approved by the majority of Blaine County citizens that vote in the June 7th election, the tax would go into effect on September 1st.
Recreational marijuana sales are already taxed by the state government at 20 percent, while medicinal marijuana is taxed at four percent. Counties that approved the 2020 ballot initiative legalizing recreational marijuana have the option to impose an additional local tax with voter approval.
According to state regulations, 50 percent of the tax revenue would go to the county, 45 percent would go to municipalities, and five percent would go back to the Department of Revenue.
Commissioner Miles Hutton says they have not determined exactly how their portion of the funds would be used, but says the regulations in HB 701 give them broad discretion.
Hutton says to his knowledge, there is currently one licensed dispensary in Blaine County. It resides just outside of Harlem city limits and opened recently.
As of the end of 2021, there were no licensed marijuana dispensaries in Blaine County. However, a spokesperson with the Department of Revenue’s Cannabis Control Division said that as of early March, there are now two marijuana licensees in Blaine County.
One is the dispensary Green Acres, LLC, located in the Harlem area. The other is the manufacturer Collective Elevation, located in the Chinook area.
