Santa Barbara County Cannabis Tax Revenue Doubles During Pandemic

Cannabis operations brought in more than twice as much tax revenue to Santa Barbara County last quarter as compared to the same time last fiscal year — $5.5 million versus $2.3 million — a surge that was partly attributed to the pandemic stay-at-home mandate in a report to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

In total, the county received $12.2 million in cannabis tax revenue over the entire 2019-2020 year. Though the county has 118 registered operators, only 50 of those contributed to the $5.5 million in cannabis tax revenue from April 1 to June 30, 2020, the fourth and most recent quarter that saw the major revenue spike linked to the pandemic. There were 43 other operators who reported zero gross receipts and 25 that didn’t report at all.