UKIAH, CA., 4/22/2017 — The case against Mendocino County’s cannabis tax is headed for the court of appeals, after Mendocino Superior Court Judge Jeanine Nadel sustained the county’s request to dismiss the matter, on Friday morning. The timeline for the appeal is unclear.
In February, seven plaintiffs, including dispensary owners, a nursery operator, and long-time cannabis activist Pebbles Trippet, brought a complaint against the county over Measure AI, a cannabis tax initiative that was authored by the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors and which passed 63.6% of the vote. Since the passage of Prop. 218 in 1996, state law has specified that a general tax, which can be used for any purpose, needs only a simple majority to pass, while a special tax, which is to be used for a specific purpose, requires a two-thirds majority. AI was accompanied by Measure AJ, a separate advisory measure asking voters if they wanted the revenue collected under AI to be used for road repair, mental health, cannabis enforcement, and emergency and fire services. The claim was at least partially modeled on a very similar suit filed against the City of Ukiah by an anti-tax political group, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
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