MENDOCINO CO., 11/9/26 — On the lower Russian River, a lot of delays get blamed on “River Time.” Mendocino County runs on something similar. Call it Mendo Time.
On May 5, county supervisors voted to end the minimum tax that cannabis growers owe even in a year with few sales.
Six months later, that tax is still in the county code.
Asked by email Monday whether the county had dropped it, Interim County Counsel Katharine Elliott answered in 19 minutes.
“No. We are working on it but keep getting rush jobs etc.,” Elliott wrote. “Also, things have slowed a little due to the change at PBS.”
That’s Planning and Building Services, not public television. Her email gave no date for when the work might be done.
The county code doesn’t run on Mendo Time. Unless supervisors pass a new ordinance, the code brings the minimum back at full price on Jan. 1: $1,250, $2,500 or $5,000 a year, depending on how much ground a grower’s permit covers.
The May votes didn’t change the law. Both motions told county staff to write the changes. Neither names a department or sets a date for that work.
The county calls the minimum the True-Up. Growers owe a share of what they sell. If that comes to less than the minimum, the county bills them for the rest.
In April, the county sent $1,323,000 in True-Up bills for 2025, due May 31. A county memo lists $225,000 collected for that year from payments based on sales. The memo counts 791 active accounts.
Supervisors have cut the tax since 2023: by 50% in 2023 and 2024, 40% in 2025 and 35% this year. The cuts lowered the minimums too. The code lists no cut for 2027, so the rate returns to 2.5% of sales on Jan. 1.
Supervisors voted in May to let the rate go back up. That part happens by itself. They also voted to end the minimum, and that part needs an ordinance.
The two May motions don’t agree on when the minimum ends. One says “Cancel True Up minimum tax starting Tax Year 2026.” The other says “effective tax year 2027.” The motion that sets 2026 also says True-Ups for 2025 and 2026 are “due and payable.”
Supervisor John Haschak made both motions, and Supervisor Ted Williams seconded them. The 2026 motion passed 3-2. Haschak, Williams and Supervisor Maureen Mulheren voted yes, and Supervisors Bernie Norvell and Madeline Cline voted no. The 2027 motion passed 4-1, with Cline voting no.
Growers do have a firm date. The code lets a grower avoid the minimum for 2027 by promising not to grow anywhere on the site that year, filing what the county calls a fallowing notice by Dec. 31 and filing an affidavit in January 2028. The county accepts them Dec. 1 through Dec. 31.
Mendo Time has precedent. In March 2023, the board adopted the first of those cuts for a tax year already underway.
Humboldt County repealed its cultivation tax Feb. 10. Sonoma County set its 2026 cultivation tax at zero effective July 1.
Mendocino County’s 2026-27 budget counts on $840,000 in cannabis tax.
Without action from supervisors, an April staff memo says, the 35% cut “will expire on December 31, 2026.”
The board next meets Nov. 17 and Dec. 15, and those agendas aren’t posted yet.
But, of course. How else would they justify a separate window for this revenue stream at the accessor’s ofc?
It’s called bureaucratic sludge and the county systems are drowning in it. CLASSIC do-as-I-say, not as I do mentality. Anyone dealing with any of the county offices is expected to be ahead of time or be penalized and treated punitively (especially cannabis), whereas the county offices can delay, delay, delay, delay, delay, delay… while the people pay, pay, pay, pay, pay. Funny thing is… I thought they worked for us. We do pay their wages after all. It doesn’t function because the county treats its residents like we owe it, when in truth they owe us the efficient service. We must stop treating this broken system like a functional government. It is not.