The judge ordered that the state refund any dispensary owners who have already renewed their licenses using the new fee structure.
By Justin Franz, Montana Free Press
A Lewis and Clark County District Court judge has invalidated a new state statute that drastically increased licensing fees for marijuana-dispensaries with multiple locations.
A dispensary that had opted to renew its license under House Bill 903 would have paid $5,000 for the first location, plus an additional $5,000 for every additional location. The new law would have required marijuana retailers to pay $10,000 for the renewal of a license to open a second shop, $15,000 for the renewal of a third, etc. The Montana Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act had previously required dispensaries pay a $5,000 flat fee to renew each location. State law mandates that licenses for dispensaries be renewed every year.
Three marijuana businesses sued the state after the bill was passed last year. Granite Peak Holdings, Inc., TSB Montana, and MariMint LLC argued that the new law is unconstitutional, and that the licensing fees collected by the Montana Department of Revenue are more than sufficient to cover the costs of the state in administering the adult-use marijuana program.
Documents filed in court show that TSB will be charged a dispensary renewal of $600,000. This is compared to the $75,000.00 fee it paid the previous years. Other dispensary chain would have paid more than $1 million.
The law was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2019. The state agreed late last year to delay the implementation of the law by 60 days due to the legal challenge.
On January 5, Judge Mike Menahan struck the law completely, ruling that the state will return to the flat $5,000-per-dispensary licensing fee. The judge ordered that the state refund any dispensary owners who have already renewed their licenses using the new fee structure.
Menahan’s Order concluded that the new fee structures were excessive and “generates a greater amount of fees than necessary to cover costs for the Department to implement and enforce the Montana Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act.”
If the law had remained in place, the state would have received an estimated $6.370.000 per year, almost triple the amount it would generate under the current fee structure.
This story was first published by The Montana Free Press at montanafreepress.org.
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The article Montana Judge strikes down increased fees for marijuana dispensaries with multiple locations first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
