Los Angeles Council Puts Marijuana Tax Before Voters in March

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The City Council in Los Angeles, America’s second-largest metropolis, agreed to ask voters to slap a 5 percent tax on medical marijuana next year.

If passed, the measure on the March 8 municipal ballot may raise as much as $7 million a year for the city, according to Courtney Chesla, a spokeswoman for Janice Hahn, the council member who sponsored the resolution, which passed 10-4 today.

“We’re in desperate need of revenue and we shouldn’t miss this opportunity,” Paul Koretz, another council member, said before the vote. The tax would be applied to reimbursements received by dispensaries of the drug.

Los Angeles, which closed a $492 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that began July 1, joins other California cities including Long Beach and Berkeley in pursuing pot taxes. Use of marijuana for medicinal purposes was passed by California voters in 1996.

--Editors: Ted Bunker, Mark Tannenbaum.

To contact the reporters on this story: Christopher Palmeri in Los Angeles at cpalmeri1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net