Despite an Essex Supreme Court judge ordering Caroline Pineau, the owner of Stem, a Haverhill marijuana retail store, to pay the city $ 356,000 in impact fees, the store owner made her point this week and stands up to us Still on solid ground in my opinion.
Pineau was unwilling to pay what was required under the host community agreement with the city. She had offered to put the money in an escrow account until the city detailed the specific impact of the pot shop’s operations on Haverhill and how the impact fees were used to mitigate that impact. In other words, Pineau was good at paying, but she wanted proof from the city that there really was an impact that justified the high fees.
As reporter Mike LaBella Pineau quoted in a story he wrote for the Eagle Tribune Thursday, “We are not discouraged or surprised by this preliminary ruling. The law clearly states that impact fees are directly related to the activities of a cannabis operator. Company stand and documented and documented must be made public. “
Your pending lawsuit against Haverhill could have a profound impact on cannabis retail stores across Massachusetts and affect their financial future.
Following this week’s ruling calling on Pineau to pay, Haverhill Mayor James Fiorentini said, “We are delighted and grateful for the court’s preliminary ruling. We anticipated this decision, which is based on a well-established law, and believe that we will also win the final decision. “
The city of Haverhill argued the pandemic made it difficult to make a detailed assessment of the impact of the marijuana business, saying that the Host Community Agreement required payment of impact fees – and that the detailed documentation would come later.
We supported laws proposed by MP Andy Vargas, a Haverhill Democrat, that would require local governments to conduct annual reviews of the costs to communities of starting pot business.
The laws passed in 2016 enable the municipalities to levy consumption taxes of up to 3% within the framework of “host agreements”. This is on top of the state cannabis excise tax of 10.75% and the state sales tax of 6.25% and the local excise tax of up to 3%. So we’re talking about a lot of money that pot shops have to pay to cities and towns.
The judge’s decision may be reasonable given the provisions of the Host Community Agreement. But Haverhill and any community that has marijuana businesses should work to expedite the details and justifications of the expenses they have incurred since those businesses opened.