In the last 10 months, cannabis sales have reached $1.12 billion, according to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. These sales are causing cities like Springfield to see a financial boost.
Bill McCarty, the city of Springfield's budget director, says a cannabis sales tax, also called a municipal retailer occupation tax, generates around $75 to 80 thousand in revenue each month.
“What it means for us is that we have a lot of additional dollars that we can utilize for intended purposes that the council passed this ordinance, this fee for,” McCarty said. Half of the funds will go directly into police and fire pension funds and the other half will go to economic development in eastside neighborhoods.
“Anytime we can do development anywhere, that’s going to be a benefit to the entire city because it will provide more resources to do more things, more services, more people, more programs,” said McCarty. “We started out at $350 to 400 thousand a year and now we are somewhere approaching, based on previous numbers, around a million dollars a year.”
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