Santa Barbara County Projects $10.5 Million Shortfall in Cannabis Tax Revenue

The ongoing downward trend in tax revenues from the cannabis industry in Santa Barbara stands out as the dark spot in an otherwise bright financial picture, county officials said this week.

While revenue from property taxes and hotel bed taxes is estimated to exceed county projections by $17 million and $2.2 million, respectively, for fiscal year 2022-23, covering last July through next June, cannabis tax revenue could fall short of projections by $10.5 million, according to a second-quarter budget update that was presented to the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

Cannabis tax revenues for 2022-23 are projected to be $5.8 million, Brittany Heaton, principal cannabis analyst for the County Executive Office, told the board. That’s just more than a third of the $16.3 million that was budgeted last June for what the county calls its “cannabis program,” which includes public services such as libraries that cannabis tax revenues are earmarked for.