Marco Cartolano, marco.cartolano@myjournalcourier.com

Published

4:30 am CST, Saturday, March 7, 2020

The village of South Jacksonville has approved a 3% municipal sales tax on adult-use cannabis.

The tax, given the OK during Thursday’s village board meeting, would go into place should a dispensary for adult-use cannabis set up shop in South Jacksonville. The committee voted to adopt the tax so it can be approved before the April 1 deadline for filing the ordinances with the Illinois Department of Revenue. The start date for the municipal and county sales tax is July 1.

In September, the Jacksonville City Council approved its own 3% tax on cannabis sales. In January, the city council passed an ordinance on dispensary zoning.

In October, Michael Emling of Vermilion County-based Daiven Kayne Enterprises spoke to the South Jacksonville board’s committee of the whole about bringing a cannabis-processing field and dispensary to South Jacksonville. After the pitch, the committee discussed bringing cannabis to South Jacksonville.

The committee then held a lightly attended forum on recreational marijuana sales in village limits, during which the benefits of raising revenue were weighed against the perceived risks of sales in the village.

The committee approved the measure in a 5-1 vote with Trustee Tom Jordan casting the lone vote against establishing the tax. Jordan said he has been opposed to marijuana sales in the village since the start of the discussion.

“It’s not a good fit for our community,” he said.

Jordan said he was concerned about the potential unforeseen consequences of marijuana sales, which he believes would place an extra burden on the village’s law enforcement.

Village Trustee Paula Belobrajdic-Stewart, who said in October that she was not in favor of a dispensary coming into the city, said she voted in favor of the tax ordinance so future village boards would have the option to raise the revenue if those boards were to welcome a dispensary. Belobrajdic-Stewart said she was willing to make sure the village had the tax ready to submit by the April deadline.

The board decided during a Feb. 26 meeting to table an ordinance on dispensary zoning. A draft ordinance from the Illinois Municipal League to zone a district for special-use permits was presented at that meeting, but the consensus was that the board needed more time to make a formal decision, according to WLDS.