Henrietta, N.Y. (WHAM) — Henrietta Town Supervisor Stephen Schultz says the town appears to be missing roughly $120,000 in expected cannabis tax revenue for 2025.

Henrietta, which has been a model for cannabis success in the state, expects to receive more than $1 million in cannabis tax revenue per year, but in 2025, it received approximately $950,000, according to Schultz.

“There’s an excise tax placed on the sale of cannabis, and 3% of that comes to the local municipality where the sale occurred,” Schultz explained.

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Schultz said the tax money helps fund the town’s operating budget and capital projects.

He pointed to what he described as a sharp drop between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.

“The fourth quarter of 2024 was roughly around $250,000, and then the first quarter of 2025 was only about $180,000,” Schultz explained. “So we were wondering, what was this $70,000 drop?”

Schultz said he tried to obtain records through a Freedom of Information Law request for the excise taxes paid by dispensaries during that quarter, but the request was denied by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. The department noted in the response letter obtained by 13WHAM that it is “unable to provide taxpayers’ information to a third party without the taxpayers’ authorization.”

“I then went about it a different route,” Schultz said. “I went to each of the six dispensaries and actually only got through to about three of them, and that’s really all I needed to. I got the information from the three largest, and that alone was up over $200,000. So it didn’t make any sense that our payment was only $180,000.”

Schultz said the amounts for the second and third quarters returned to about $250,000, but he said the fourth quarter again came in lower than expected.

“Our total should have been, again, around $250,000. It was about $200,000,” Schultz said. “No explanation why.”

Schultz said any shortfall could ultimately affect taxpayers.

“If there’s a shortfall and we budgeted for that and there’s a shortfall, the only place to pick it up is in next year’s property tax revenues,” Schultz said. “My thing is people paid an excise tax, and that money is supposed to come to this municipality, and for some reason it’s not, and that’s not right.”

The state’s Tax Department says it collects quarterly sales tax from dispensaries and then turns it over to the state comptroller’s office, which distributes it to counties. The county then distributes a portion of the funds to local governments, including Henrietta.

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None of the state agencies contacted last Thursday provided specifics about Schultz’s claims. 13WHAM also reached out to Monroe County for information Thursday and has not yet received a response.