Whether city officials across Ohio perceived it as a goose that would lay golden eggs or simply another bucket from which to pull funds, they’ve been counting on marijuana tax revenues that haven’t yet arrived. Ohio voters agreed to legal language in 2023 that the governor signed into the state budget this July outlining marijuana tax revenue for communities with dispensaries — but the money is still tied up at the state level.

Issue 2, the initiated statute that voters passed in November 2023, included language indicating “host communities” would receive 36% of the adult-use excise tax that customers pay at dispensaries in their communities. However, Kent Scarrett, executive director of the nonprofit Ohio Municipal League said, “there’s no appropriation or mechanism to distribute those revenues.”

The adult-use excise tax for all dispensary purchases is 10%. During an Akron city budget meeting in early March, Finance Director Steve Fricker said the city had forecasted about $1.3 million in marijuana tax revenues for fiscal year 2024 from the three operating dispensaries in Akron.

Cuyahoga Falls Communications Director Carrie Snyder said via email that the city does not have a figure for how much tax has been collected from the two dispensaries in the city. Northfield Law Director Bryan said via email on Oct. 2 that because in the first dispensary located in the village opened in late August, the village “has not received any local government share tax revenue from the dispensary as of this date.”

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