TURNERS FALLS — In an effort to balance a welcoming attitude for business with a cautious sentiment for potential effects on the town, Montague voters approved a list of zoning bylaws and a sales tax rate on marijuana at Thursday night’s special town meeting.
The new provisions and bylaws will allow for recreational marijuana shops and businesses to come to town at the earliest date possible, April 1, as determined by the state — while levying a three percent local sales tax on marijuana sales along guidelines to where what can go.
“The zoning bylaws are a good safeguard for an industry that we don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like,” Montague Town Planner Walter Ramsey said after the special town meeting at Shea Theater. “It’s a happy medium between allowing new businesses to come in while still protecting the town’s interests.”
Come April 1, the state’s Cannabis Control Commission’s guidelines for legalized marijuana will come into effect. While some towns in Franklin County had decided to pass a moratorium to Dec. 31 so that residents can react to the guidelines when they formally come out, Montague decided to use the draft regulations out since around Christmas.
The two articles for the voters of Montague to decide on were highly anticipated and were saved for the end of the seven-item warrant. Discourse over the two votes related to marijuana began roughly an hour and a half after the start of the meeting and was relatively brief.
While at first there were questions of whether three percent was high enough, residents were quickly informed that is the ceiling at which the state will allow local towns and municipalities to profit off of the sales. In total that could amount to about a 20 percent tax on the product with state tax.
“If we can at least take advantage of the opportunity to tax a retail component of it, we totally should,” Ellis said.
The town’s outgoing building inspector David Jensen spoke out against the sales tax, saying it could discourage businesses from wanting to come to Montague.
“We can tag along (with what the state is doing) and not feel particularly bad about it, but quite frankly the number set in the tax rate determines whether big business or small business gets involved,” Jensen said.
Others in town questioned if the tax could hurt businesses, despite it being on the consumer and not the retailer. Some brought up the idea of businesses wanting to go to New Hampshire because of the lack of sales tax.
The town’s planning department representative from the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, Bruce Young, presented a PowerPoint presentation to the residents, showing what the zoning bylaws would influence.
The bylaws were passed overwhelmingly.
“We think it’s the best regulation we can put forward that’s not too restrictive, but also protects our town from a lot of unknown,” Young said.
You can reach
Joshua Solomon at:
jsolomon@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 264