NEWS & RESOURCES

“Raising taxes in a shrinking market is shortsighted and fiscally irresponsible,” said Freedman. “AB 564 will help level the playing field, protect jobs, and keep California competitive in the national cannabis economy. We thank Assemblymember Haney for his leadership and urge the Legislature to act before it’s too late.”

In powerful testimony before the California Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 5 today, CaCOA Executive Director Amy O'Gorman Jenkins delivered a stark reality check about the state's struggling legal cannabis market and urged immediate legislative action to prevent the looming excise tax increase that threatens to devastate California's licensed cannabis businesses.

“At the least we need a freeze this year,” on the excise tax at 15%, says industry lobbyist Amy O’Gorman Jenkins. She would like to go further and see the legislature pass a “fairly substantial tax reduction” for the industry. That may not be possible, she said, due to expensive wildfire relief efforts and the ensuing insurance crisis.

Several hundred California cannabis retailers, tired of the regulatory status quo and worried about an upcoming tax hike, have banded together to form yet another trade organization to lobby lawmakers in Sacramento, several of the organizers told Green Market Report this week.

CaCOA is a coalition representing hundreds of cannabis storefronts statewide has announced the formation of the California Cannabis Operators Association (CaCOA), an organization committed to reshaping the legislative and political landscape for legal, licensed, and regulated cannabis businesses.