{"id":78228,"date":"2024-10-09T10:23:21","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T18:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/10\/09\/missouri-appeals-court-hears-arguments-in-case-on-marijuana-sales-tax-stacking-by-local-governments\/"},"modified":"2024-10-09T19:46:10","modified_gmt":"2024-10-10T03:46:10","slug":"missouri-appeals-court-hears-arguments-in-case-on-marijuana-sales-tax-stacking-by-local-governments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/10\/09\/missouri-appeals-court-hears-arguments-in-case-on-marijuana-sales-tax-stacking-by-local-governments\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri Appeals Court Hears Arguments In Case On Marijuana Sales Tax \u2018Stacking\u2019 By Local Governments"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously much of the discussion centered around the definition of local government in Missouri\u2019s Constitution, which we saw as a good sign.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent<\/strong><\/p>\n

The court debate Tuesday over how Missouri marijuana products get taxed statewide sounded similar to a grammar class on conjunctions and comma placement.<\/p>\n

The constitutional amendment voters approved in 2022 legalizing recreational marijuana allowed local governments to impose additional sales tax on the products.<\/p>\n

The big question before the three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District on Tuesday was: What did voters intend by \u201clocal government?\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorneys for St. Louis and St. Charles counties argued the word \u201cand\u201d is key in the definition laid out in the constitutional amendment.<\/p>\n

It states that \u201clocal government\u201d means, \u201cin the case of an incorporated area, a village, town, or city; and, in the case of an unincorporated area, a county.\u201d<\/p>\n

The counties asked the appellate judges to uphold a lower court\u2019s interpretation in May that both a county and a local municipality can impose a 3 percent sales tax at dispensaries<\/a> in their jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

However, Florissant-based dispensary Robust Missouri 3 LLC argued that the comma placement is key.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile \u2018and\u2019 typically functions as a conjunction, here it connects two distinct clauses\u2014one for incorporated areas and one for unincorporated areas\u2014under the framework of \u2018in the case of,\u2019 which delineates separate alternatives,\u201d states Robust\u2019s reply brief.<\/p>\n

Attorneys for Robust said Tuesday that voters didn\u2019t intend for two local governments\u2014in its case, St. Louis County and the City of Florissant\u2014to both add taxes, resulting in a 14.988 percent sales tax rate.<\/p>\n

To put that in perspective, the highest adult-use marijuana sales tax in Missouri is in Florissant\u2019s neighboring cities of Hazelwood and St. Ann, with 17.988 percent.<\/p>\n

Looking beyond the grammar, appellate judges asked about the possibility of \u201cabsurd outcomes\u201d that St. Louis County Circuit Judge Brian May wrote about in his ruling if the court accepted Robust\u2019s definition of local government.<\/p>\n

May wrote that if Robust\u2019s interpretation of the amendment were accepted, \u201cthen a municipality or city would essentially be given carte blanche to ignore any county ordinance or regulation, including those related to public health and safety wholly unrelated to the taxing issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

May was largely talking about public health regulations because public health in Florissant is regulated by St. Louis County.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Judge Robert Clayton asked Robust\u2019s attorney Eric Walter: \u201cIf we accept your definition, all those county regulations or everything else will be no longer applicable on these particular types of businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walter replied that the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the state agency tasked with regulating cannabis businesses, requires \u201cthat you\u2019re compliant with all the local government regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both attorneys for the counties and Robust declined to comment on Tuesday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n

Following May\u2019s ruling, the Missouri Association of Counties executive director Steve Hobbs said the association has strongly advocated that counties have the ability to do levvy their own taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bulk of the counties around the state had gone to the voters and asked them to implement this tax,\u201d Hobbs told The Independent in May. \u201cAnd I think every one of them approved of it. I think [the ruling] removes some uncertainty from those counties.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other side, leaders of the marijuana industry have called the effort to collect both taxes an \u201cunconstitutional money grab\u201d that violates the terms of the amendment.<\/p>\n

Jack Cardetti, spokesman for the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association said the appellate judges Tuesday seemed \u201cvery prepared and well versed on the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously much of the discussion centered around the definition of local government in Missouri\u2019s Constitution, which we saw as a good sign,\u201d Cardetti said. \u201cAs we enter year two of Missouri cannabis consumers paying roughly $3 million more each month than they should, we hope to bring customers relief as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

A similar appeals case out of Buchanan County is also pending.<\/p>\n

St. Joseph dispensary Vertical Enterprises sued<\/a> Buchanan County Collector Peggy Campbell, arguing that it, too, would be \u201cirreparably harmed\u201d if both taxes were imposed.<\/p>\n

Also in May, Circuit Judge Daniel Kellogg ruled<\/a> that the marijuana law does not limit the taxing power of counties within corporate limits of towns and cities.<\/p>\n

A hearing date for this case has not yet been set.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Missouri Independent.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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Missouri\u2019s Cost To Enforce Ban On Intoxicating Hemp Products Estimated At Nearly $900K<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The post Missouri Appeals Court Hears Arguments In Case On Marijuana Sales Tax \u2018Stacking\u2019 By Local Governments<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Missouri Appeals Court Hears Arguments In Case On Marijuana Sales Tax \u2018Stacking\u2019 By Local Governments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cObviously much of the discussion centered around the definition of local government in Missouri\u2019s Constitution, which we saw as a good sign.\u201d By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent The court debate Tuesday over how Missouri marijuana products get taxed statewide sounded similar to a grammar class on conjunctions and comma placement.Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78229,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78228\/revisions\/78229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}