Councilmember says revenue would be alternative to STR
During last week’s council meeting, Councilmember Mary Schickling argued that a dispensary for recreation marijuana would relieve the city’s dependancy on the short term rental tax.
Schickling brought up the idea during council comments, so the council took no action on her idea.
“A lot of cities on the mainland have pulled themselves completely out of bankruptcy by opening dispensaries,” Schickling said.
She said the money could be funneled into the General Fund or into educational programs. “This isn’t going to happen right away,” she said.
“This is one of my goals, though,” she said.
“I think it would be good for this town,” she said. She thought it would be good fiscally (financially). Schickling said Avalon would have to work out getting the cannibis delivered through Federal waters.
This is not the first time the subject has come up in Avalon politics.
The proposal for the advisory vote came up during an August 2019 council discussion about raising the city’s revenues. At the time, the proposal was made by Mayor Anni Marshall.
In 2020, the Avalon election ballot included an advisory vote on whether to expand the city’s medical cannabis ordinance to allow adult use of recreational marijuana.
Avalon voters rejected the proposal at that time. The Islander for March 6, 2020, reported preliminary results of 256 “no” votes and 165 “yes” votes.
In a recent phone interview, Marshall said that was why Avalon now allows medical cannabis delivery. However, according to the California Department of Cannabis Control website, the medicinal cannabis license for Catalna Connect expired as of July 2022. The website lists the status of the license as provisional.
