The bill, which includes many other provisions tweaking Ohio’s recreational cannabis laws and regulating intoxicating hemp products, would finally give the state the authority it says it needs — and has lacked — to disburse the money sitting in Ohio’s Host Community Cannabis Fund to the communities that are home to recreational marijuana dispensaries.
A spokesperson with the Ohio Office of Budget and Management, Pete LuPiba, told this outlet in a statement that it’s not technically accurate to say these communities are “owed” anything, despite the local kickbacks being a prominent tenet of the voter-approved legislation that legalized recreational use and created the fund.
“To note, the authors of Issue 2 made no appropriations, nor is there any appropriations in current Ohio Law; therefore, it is not actually accurate that a local Government in the State is owed any specific amount,” LuPiba said, noting that the Ohio Constitution forbids the state from withdrawing money from the treasure unless there’s a legal appropriation.
As of the end of October, the fund had amassed $28.3 million, LuPiba said.
Once funds begin flowing, the money will be sent to communities at a rate proportional to the amount of tax revenue their dispensaries raised. For example, if a city has only one dispensary and it raised $10,000 in overall cannabis tax revenue, 36% of that ($3,600) would be routed to the local government. The remaining 64% ($6,400) would go into the state’s general fund.
Despite this theoretical distribution being clear, the state has not yet made the calculations to determine how much each community is set to receive. LuPiba said the “proper distribution amounts for eligible communities will be computed” once an appropriation becomes law.
The delay has caused frustration for an array of communities in the Miami Valley, which is home to nearly 20 dispensaries scattered in Montgomery County (seven), Butler County (five), Warren County (four), Clark County (three) and Greene County (one).
On the border of Warren and Butler counties sits Monroe, which has two dispensaries in each county. Like many of the communities that saw dispensaries prop up after legalization, Monroe expected to financially benefit from the kickbacks by now.
“It is disappointing that Monroe and other host communities have not received the cannabis excise tax revenues we were told to expect,” Monroe City Manager Larry Lester said in a statement to this outlet. “Our city has four dispensaries operating responsibly, and those funds were intended to help support local services.”
Oxford City Manger Doug Elliott, whose city has been home to two dispensaries since legal sales began, told this outlet he doesn’t know how much Oxford will get when funds start flowing. The state hasn’t offered clarity, either.
Elliott said whatever money Oxford gets from the Host Community Cannabis Fund will be used to support the city’s police department.
“The only problem is, it doesn’t do us any good unless there’s (an) appropriation,” he said.
Dayton, which has five dispensaries within city limits, hasn’t yet decided where to put its looming kickback. Toni Bankston, a Dayton spokesperson, told this outlet that the funds will be incorporated into the city’s planning, as determined by the city commission.
“We expect the revenue to be meaningful but modest relative to the city’s overall budget — likely in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, not millions," Bankston said.
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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