Guadalupe moves cannabis tax measure toward November ballot

June 18, 2026

Based on a unanimous Guadalupe City Council decision, voters will likely see a new cannabis business tax measure on their November election ballots.

With a 5-0 vote, the council approved the ballot addition’s first reading on June 9. If its second reading passes, constituents will decide whether Guadalupe should impose new taxes on the gross receipts of all wholesale and retail cannabis businesses within city limits.

“The ordinance explicitly says it won’t take effect until it’s adopted by the vote of the people,” City Attorney Phil Sinco told the council, “until [general election] results are accepted in the first [council] meeting in December.”

There are currently two companies that would be impacted by the measure if it passes, Sinco added. Central Coast Processing is Guadalupe’s sole wholesale cannabis grower and Root One is the city’s only retail dispensary.

The latter company’s owner, Austen Connella, advocated for the council to draft the ballot measure. His storefront currently pays the city 4 percent (recently reduced from 6 percent) of gross income as a public benefit fee, rather than as a formal tax.

Connella told the council in April that he would prefer a city tax over the business fee structure because federal policies prevent him and other state-legal cannabis retailers from deducting regular business expenses on federal taxes.

Part of Connella’s agreement with the city to open Root One in 2024 included the public benefit fee arrangement, since Guadalupe doesn’t have a cannabis tax to benefit from.

Similarly, Central Coast Processing pays the city a public benefit fee of 2 percent of its gross cannabis wholesale revenue. If Guadalupe voters pass the proposed cannabis tax measure, Central Coast Processing and Root One’s fee agreements with the city would cease by January 2027 (when the tax would begin if approved).

At the council’s June 9 meeting, City Attorney Sinco noted that staff drafted the proposed restructuring to allow the City Council to raise tax percentages on either company to certain extents by resolution in the future—up to a maximum rate of 8 percent for Root One or 4 percent for Central Coast Processing.

“The ordinance would also allow the council [discretion] to lower the rate,” Sinco said. “This is kind of a practice in the state to allow some flexibility for conditions.”

After Councilmember Amelia Villegas motioned to move the cannabis tax proposal forward for a second reading (scheduled for June 23), the motion passed 5-0.

This article appears in June 18 – June 25, 2026.