Funding for Senior Centers and the status of the Clear Lake Hitch are among the agenda items for this week’s Lake County Board of Supervisors meeting. Lake County News reports that Social Services director Rachael Dillman Parsons will tell the board that the Area Agency on Aging of Lake and Mendocino County has a one-million dollar hole in its budget because Congress has failed to re-authorize money for the Older Americans Act. Parsons says that means the agency will have to find funds elsewhere to keep services running through June 30th, unless Congress steps in with a re-authorization. Board members will also hear from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife about what it’s done over the last year to protect the endangered Clearlake Hitch. The Tuesday morning meeting starts at 9:00 am in the board chambers at the County Courthouse.
California’s legal cannabis industry is bracing for a big tax increase and higher licensing fees later this year–which some say could doom the legal marketplace. SFGate reports that the state is required to update the cannabis excise tax in July and because sales have slowed, that excise tax could go up between 15 and 20 percent. Plus, the Department of Cannabis Control is facing a 23 million dollar budget deficit and could have to raise license fees to make up the shortfall. Growers and retailers say the extra cost could force them to raise prices, or go under–driving customers away from the LEGAL market and back underground. They say that would defeat the whole purpose of California’s cannabis legalization in 2016.
