California Bill To Delay Marijuana Tax Hike Is Set To Get A Vote On Assembly Floor This Week

California activists are urging lawmakers to pass a bill this week to delay
the implementation of an planned hike on marijuana taxes—a policy change
advocates argue would detract from efforts to mitigate the illicit market.

The tax increase that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed into law would raise the
rate from 15 percent to 19 percent, effective July 1. But under legislation
from Assemblymember Matt Haney (D), that increase would be delayed for five
years to give legislators more time to consider the issue.

The Assembly is expected to take up the measure this week, but advocates
are hoping to see its language incorporated into a separate budget trailer
bill that would take effect upon enactment—as opposed to the beginning of
next year under Haney’s bill.

“So far, we’ve been gratified by the very strong support we have seen in
the committee on this,” Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML, told
Marijuana Moment on Monday. “We’re hopeful for a positive outcome.”

“California NORML is proud to have taken a leadership roll sponsoring this
bill, and I’m being joined by co-sponsors across the spectrum here,” he
said.

While the legislation as introduced would have outright repealed the
proposed tax hike, it’s since been amended to delay its implementation
until the 2030-2031 fiscal year.

“Cannabis is already heavily over-taxed relative to comparable products
like beer, wine, and tobacco in California,” California NORML said in an
alert to supporters, urging them to contact their representatives to
support Haney’s bill.

“The industry needs a tax decrease, not an increase. The industry is
struggling to compete against overtaxation, the illicit market, resistance
to local licensing, and the proliferation of hemp-derived products. Medical
marijuana patients in particular are unable to meet their needs for
cannabis products under current pricing.”

Under the legislation, the California Department of Tax and Fee
Administration (CDTFA), working with the Department of Finance, would be
required to “adjust the cannabis excise tax rate upon purchasers of
cannabis or cannabis products” based on the “additional percentage of the
gross receipts of any retail sale by a cannabis retailer that the
department estimates will generate an amount of revenue equivalent to the
amount that would have been collected in the previous fiscal year,” the
bill text says.

The department would need to “estimate the amount of revenue that would
have been collected in the previous fiscal year pursuant to the
weight-based cultivation tax” and “estimate this amount by projecting the
revenue from weight-based cultivation taxes that would have been collected
in the previous calendar year based on information available to the
department.”

“The specific goal of the cannabis excise tax rate reduction is to provide
immediate tax relief to the cannabis industry,” the measure states. “The
efficacy of this goal may be measured by the Legislature by the amount of
gain or loss in cannabis excise tax revenues resulting from the cannabis
excise tax rate reduction allowed by this act.”

It also mandates that CDTFA, on or before December 1, 2026 and each
subsequent year the California “submit a report to the
Legislature…detailing the amount of gain or loss in cannabis excise tax
revenues resulting from the cannabis excise tax rate reduction allowed by
this act.”


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Meanwhile, California officials last month awarded another round of
community reinvestment grants to nonprofits and local health departments,
funded by marijuana tax revenue.

California’s Supreme Court separately delivered a victory for the state’s
marijuana program last month, rescinding a lower court ruling in a case
that suggested federal prohibition could be used locally to undermine the
cannabis market.

The state Supreme Court ruling also came just weeks after California
officials unveiled a report on the current status and future of the state’s
marijuana market—with independent analysts hired by regulators concluding
that the federal prohibition on cannabis that prevents interstate commerce
is meaningfully bolstering the illicit market.

Newsom did sign a bill in 2022 that would have empowered him to enter into
interstate cannabis commerce agreements with other legal states, but that
power was incumbent upon federal guidance or an assessment from the state
attorney general that sanctioned such activity.

Meanwhile, a California Senate committee recently declined to advance a
bipartisan bill that would have created a psilocybin pilot program for
military veterans and former first responders.

Florida Marijuana Activists Collect Enough Signatures On 2026 Legalization
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On Assembly Floor This Week appeared first on Marijuana Moment.