We are happy to report that the Fallowing Program and the Ag Pass Program both were adopted by the BoS on Tuesday 7-12-2022!
1. Fallowing
The ordinance linked below will go into effect 30 days from today. At that time any operators with permits OR embossed receipts who are voluntarily reducing their canopy for this season will have just 30 days to apply for tax relief based on that reduction.
Here’s the breakdown of the available tax relief:
22-0838 – Cannabis Tax – Fallowing – Ordinance – Where the Fallowed Area consists of a portion of the cultivation site, the applicant or permittee shall be subject to the minimum tax that corresponds to the square footage of the non-fallowed portion of the cultivation site, such that:
– Where the non-fallowed portion of the cultivation site is two thousand five hundred (2,500) square feet or less, the applicant or permittee shall pay the minimum tax amount stated in section6.32.050.B.1.a.
– Where the non-fallowed portion of the cultivation site is over two thousand five hundred (2,500) square feet and up to and including five thousand (5,000) square feet, the applicant or permittee shall pay the minimum tax amount stated in section 6.32.050.B.1.b.
– Where the non-fallowed portion of the cultivation site is over five thousand (5,000) square feet, the applicant or permittee shall pay the minimum tax amount stated in section 6.32.050.B.1.c.
What this means is that if your site is between 5,001 and 10,000 square feet, you must fallow to 5,000 square feet or below to reduce your minimum tax. Someone with 10,000 square feet will not receive a minimum tax reduction if they reduce from 10,000 to 7,500, or even 6,000 square feet for example. Please keep this in mind as you decide what square footage to fallow if you are choosing to take advantage of this program.
The county / MCD will need to provide the public with the required Affidavit of Fallowing for operators to utilize for this process, and we have requested it so everyone who wants to use it can have as much time to prepare for submission as possible.
2. Ag Pass Program
The Ag Pass Program was designed to enable pre-registration for commercial farmers (including cannabis farmers), ranchers and kennel owners to streamline the process for accessing evacuated areas during fire emergencies WHEN CONDITIONS ALLOW. It is NOT a blanket pass to be in an evacuation zone, but it will enable those with passes to enter if and when conditions are safe enough, but prior to a full evacuation order being lifted.
Linked below is the approved program explanation and application (it says DRAFT on the document b/c it was provided to the BoS before adoption). It will be cleaned up and made available so operators can begin submitting their applications in line with the program once it goes into effect 30 days from now. Both of these items are the result of MCA’s advocacy efforts to support the needs of our Members and the community at large. We’re glad to see any steps toward the support of our licensed operators, and believe these programs are definitely steps in the right direction.
We’ll keep you updated once these items are in effect and accepting submissions.
Files can be seen here: https://bit.ly/Fallowing_AgPass
