Lewis County is considering permitting the sale of cannabis within the county’s unincorporated areas as it looks for new revenue options to shore up its budget in the future.
Lewis County Budget Administrator Becky Butler presented a budget update to the Lewis County Board of Commissioners Monday morning that included proposals for new ways to bring in money for the county.
Along with a possible public safety tax, which has long been discussed by county officials, she and staff suggested the possibility of permitting cannabis as another source of income for the county.
The board of commissioners instructed staff to move forward with a survey of county residents to gauge how they would feel about the county permitting and zoning cannabis production and retail.
Commissioner Sean Swope was the first to speak in favor of putting out the survey to county residents, clarifying that it did not signal support or opposition but simply fact finding.
Commissioner Scott Brummer raised some concerns over the county searching for “revenue” in general, calling it another term for raising taxes. Brummer also referred to the revenue from cannabis facilities as “extremely questionable,” but also approved of the survey, given that the commissioners got a chance to look at it before it was made public.
“From my standpoint, we represent the people, and I want to hear what the people have to say,” Brummer said.
According to conversations in the Monday morning meeting, including comments from both County Manager Ryan Barrett and Community Development Director Mindy Brooks, the survey could go out to county residents by the end of the week. Brooks said the survey will ask simple questions, such as whether residents are in favor, against or do not care when concerning cannabis facilities in the county.
Lewis County is currently one of six counties in the state of Washington that actively prohibits zoning of shops or other facilities related to the production and sale of cannabis. While the county prohibits zoning of cannabis facilities, four cities — Centralia, Chehalis, Winlock and Toledo — notably allow zoning for cannabis facilities.
According to Butler, permitting cannabis use in Lewis County would open up two new streams of revenue for the county. The revenue would not come from a new tax. Instead, the policy and zoning change would allow Lewis County to benefit from a state tax that is already being levied on all cannabis products sold in Washington.
The state taxes the sale of all cannabis or cannabis products at 37% and distributes some of those tax dollars to local governments in the state through two avenues. First, Washington state distributes some of the tax dollars to local governments based on population to cities, towns and counties that allow for the siting of cannabis producers, processors and retailers.
Secondly, the state distributes additional funds from cannabis retail tax as a “retail share” to all cities where a cannabis producer, processor or retailer is actually located. The sum of that revenue depends on the portion of statewide cannabis sales that happen in unincorporated portions of the county.
According to the data provided by Butler during her presentation, Lewis County saw roughly $9 million in cannabis sales for a period from summer of 2023 to summer of 2024 out of roughly $1.2 billion in sales across the state.
