Voters in Festus, Herculaneum, Hillsboro and Pevely did the same thing many of their counterparts around the state did on April 4 – overwhelmingly approved sales taxes to be charged on recreational marijuana sales.
In November 2020, state voters approved a measure allowing marijuana sales to people 21 and older. In February, facilities with licenses to sell medical marijuana began selling it for recreational use as well.
As part of the measure Missouri voters approved in 2020 that allowed recreational marijuana sales, the state is charging an additional 6-cent sales tax on those purchases. Cities and counties can ask their voters to approve an additional 3 cents.
Jefferson County officials have said they will wait to put a countywide marijuana sales tax on the ballot while the state determines whether it can be imposed only in unincorporated areas or if it can be added on top of the sales taxes in cities that also charge it.
Festus
Festus voters led the parade by passing its sales tax by nearly 72 percent to 28 percent.
“I don’t know that I was surprised by the outcome. Pretty much around the state, wherever it was put on the ballot, it was approved by anywhere from 65 percent to 75 percent,” said Festus City Administrator Greg Camp.
“It’s kind of the same thing that most people don’t have a problem with having cigarettes taxed extra, especially if they don’t smoke. Or additional taxes on alcohol if they don’t drink. People don’t mind if someone else pays extra, and the people who use these products usually don’t give the extra taxes a lot of thought.”
Festus has one licensed marijuana outlet, Starbuds, 1168 W. Gannon Drive.
Camp said he can only guess how much the sales tax will generate each year.
“It’s really hard to tell, because up until earlier this year, they’d only been selling medical marijuana,” he said. “I’d guess it may be two times or three times as much, maybe $80,000 to $100,000 per year.”
Camp said the city will start collecting the tax in the last quarter of this year.
Proceeds from the new tax, he said, will be used for infrastructure and public safety.
“Infrastructure covers a lot of things, from streets and sidewalks to water and sewer,” he said. “Public safety takes in the Police Department and the Fire Department.”
Hillsboro
Just under 68 percent of Hillsboro voters gave their thumbs-up to the tax, a victory that Mayor Buddy Russell said is satisfying.
He said the city’s single licensed retailer, North Dispensary, 929 Peachtree Plaza Drive, led an organized opposition to the question.
“It was kind of a slap in the face to the city, considering what we did to get them in here,” Russell said.
He said North distributed signs that said to vote no because it hurts small businesses.
“That’s totally untrue,” Russell said. “It affects only marijuana dispensaries, and in Hillsboro, that’s North.
“I stood in front of (the polling place) at City Hall for 14 hours on Election Day and answered a lot of questions from voters going in. A few of them I talked with coming out said they voted no, and when I asked them why, it was evident that they really didn’t know the facts.”
Russell said city officials don’t yet have an estimate on how much revenue the tax would generate for the city, but the money would be deposited into the general fund.
“We’d like to devote it to the Police Department, so we can pay our officers more,” he said. “I’m very happy that we’re going to be able to do that.”
Pevely
Voters in Pevely approved the sales tax on marijuana in their city, 68 percent to 32 percent.
City Administrator Andy Hixson said he was not expecting such a wide margin of approval.
“I thought it would pass, but I thought the vote would be closer,” he said. “Almost every city in the state, it was something like 70 percent to 30 percent, but I thought our number would be 55 percent to 45 percent or something like that.”
The city has one authorized seller, North Dispensary, 1709 Hwy. Z.
“They’ve been here a couple of years,” Hixson said. “It’s a well-run business.”
He said while the business is owned by the same company as the one in Hillsboro, there was no organized campaign against the tax in his city.
“They voiced some opposition, but we had a discussion about it. I understand their viewpoint; they’re businesspeople. But I didn’t see any organized campaign in Pevely.”
Hixson said city officials have agreed to use the money generated by the tax for police services.
“We’re estimating that it could mean as much as $150,000 per year,” he said.
Herculaneum
In Herculaneum, almost 70 percent of the voters approved the tax.
The city currently has no licensed marijuana dealer, but officials said they wanted to place the issue on the ballot to have a tax in place if and when one decides to open shop in the city.
“I’m surprised that it passed by the margin that it did,” City Administrator Jim Kasten said. “But I understand why it would.
“If you don’t use it, you won’t be paying anything. If you do, you’re not worried about it that much.”
He said if the city collects any money from the tax in the future, it likely would be used for “quality of life” issues, such as streets, sidewalks and parks.