New Report Finds Massachusetts Municipalities Have Collected More Than $50 Million in Community Impact Fees, But Lack of Transparent Accounting Continues
June 8, 2022
In 2017, the Massachusetts Legislature amended the voter-passed cannabis legalization bill to permit localities in the Commonwealth to collect an “impact fee” equal to 3% of gross revenues for any licensed recreational cannabis establishment. Over the last four years, this impact fee has been the subject of legal and journalistic scrutiny, both over the capacity of the Cannabis Control Commission to regulate collection of the fee…
UMass McCormack School Report Finds Mass. Cannabis Host Community Agreement Require $2.5 Million in Unlawful Excess Fees, Lack Transparent Accounting of Funds
May 11, 2021
Report Finds Little Oversight Over Nearly $12 Million in Municipal Revenue from First Year of Legal Adult-Use Cannabis Sales
BOSTON – A new analysis of ‘host community agreements’ made by Massachusetts municipal governments and local cannabis business operators reveals that the agreements regularly violate state law, which states that “community impact fee[s] shall be reasonably related to the costs imposed upon the municipality by the operation of the marijuana establishment.”