COLUMBUS – 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.”
Ohio Office of Budget and Management Chief Communications Officer Pete LuPiba said via email that information regarding the amount of tax revenue collected from individual municipalities is not currently available.
“Once appropriation is enacted to authorize distributions from the Host Community Cannabis Fund, community-specific tax revenue amounts will be computed and become available,” LuPiba said.
Lawmakers won’t release the tax revenue until they reach an agreement on rules for marijuana and intoxicating hemp products.
“It’s still unknown what the final outcome’s going to be, if we’re going to get revenue and what levels of the percentage of the new 10% our host communities will be receiving,” Scarrett said.
Scarrett pointed to Ohio Senate Bill 56 as the likely vehicle that will solidify a policy. The bill passed the Ohio Senate in February and is now with the Ohio House of Representatives.
Scarrett said the Ohio Municipal League “would fully support Issue 2 being implemented as the voters voted for and approved.”
Between Aug. 6, 2024 — when legal recreational marijuana sales began in Ohio — and Sept. 13, dispensaries have sold more than $802 million worth of product, according to the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control.
That comes out to $80.2 million in total tax revenue that will be collected from those sales, nearly $28.9 million of which could go to host communities.
Pure Ohio COO ‘shocked’ by delay distributing tax money to communities
Tracey McMillin is chief operating officer of marijuana company Pure Ohio Wellness, headquartered in Mad River Township, Ohio. The company plans to open a dispensary at 594 South Ave. in Tallmadge as soon as mid-October.
“I’m just shocked by everything that they are fighting over right now, to be honest — just the money that’s supposed to go to the local municipalities and that sort of thing,” McMillin said of state legislators. “I was not expecting them to go that route.
“That part should be easy. It’s their money,” she said of the municipalities. “It was voted on. It should be an easy transfer. But evidently, the government wants to keep more for themselves — the state government.”
Could marijuana tax revenues support substance abuse education?
The city of Stow hired a school counselor two years ago using money from opioid settlements. Stow City Council President Cyle Feldman, who’s also the school district’s athletic director, said he would like to take a similar approach with tax revenue from any cannabis dispensary that might set up in the city.
“I’d like to do it just like the opioid settlement,” Feldman said, adding that he specifically means education around and treatment of substance abuse.
Of the counselor, Feldman said, “She’s doing great work.”
Between October 2023 and July 2025, 91 district students participated in the Stow Youth Services program with which the counselor is contracted, Police Chief Jeff Film said in City Council’s Sept. 11 meeting.
“I think this program has been very successful,” Film said. “We have been contacted by many agencies across the state of Ohio asking us about this program that we have.”
City Council voted Sept. 11 for a new, two-year contract with the counselor.
Stow At-Large City Councilman Kyle Herman said via email that the city could benefit from tax revenues from possible future marijuana sales.
“Typically, I advocate for revenues to go to the City’s general funds, but in this case I would have been willing to earmark funds for public safety to contribute to hiring school resource officers for all of our schools,” Herman said. “But we have many underfunded infrastructure projects, such as sidewalks, that could benefit from an influx of revenue.”
More broadly, Feldman said he’s looking to the Ohio General Assembly, including the status of legislation such as Senate Bill 56 and House Bill 160 — which addresses marijuana, hemp and liquor — for updates on marijuana industry laws and regulations.
We want the economic benefits, of course, and we want the tax revenue, of course,” he said. “But there’s also some regulatory uncertainty. Right now, they’re changing things.”
Patrick Williams covers growth and development for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @pwilliamsOH. Sign up for the Beacon Journal’s business and consumer newsletter, “What’s The Deal?“
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Local officials waiting on marijuana tax revenue as sales numbers grow
