click to enlarge - File: Sasha Goldstein ©️ Seven Days
- A cashier ringing up a sale at Flora Cannabis in October
Vermont cannabis stores sold $2.6 million worth of product during October, the first month they were in business, according to the state Department of Taxes.
Fewer stores were open in October than today, and some shops initially had a more limited supply to offer customers. But the figures did not surprise state officials.
"It really is just kind of tracking pretty closely with what our projections were," said Brynn Hare, executive director of the Vermont Cannabis Control Board, the state agency that oversees the legal weed market. "If you carry those numbers out — if we continue to get licenses out, we get the tourist revenue that we were anticipating into the state — then I think we're on track to hit to hit our projection for [fiscal year 2023]."
The 14 percent excise tax amounted to a $329,231 haul for state coffers. Customers must also pay Vermont's 6 percent sales tax, which amounted to another $144,000 for the state.
Per state law, some of the excise tax revenue must be used to "backfill" any deficit in the control board's budget. Of the remainder, 70 percent goes to the state general fund, while 30 percent goes to a "substance misuse and prevention fund." The sales tax revenue from cannabis sales is earmarked for afterschool and summer learning programs.
A consultant estimated that the state would make $2.1 to $2.4 million in excise taxes during the first nine months,
according to James Pepper, chair of the Vermont Cannabis Control Board. That amounts to roughly $233,000 to $267,000 per month.
"They look pretty much like our projections were accurate," Pepper said on Tuesday.
The legislature's Joint Fiscal Office had higher projections, though, with annual estimates ranging from $3.3 million to $9.1 million. That equates to monthly excise tax revenues of $275,000 to $758,000.
Hare said that revenues from November, December and even January could be more indicative of what the state can expect from an established market. At the end of October, she noted, only about seven stores had opened. As of last week, the control board had approved licenses for 36 cannabis shops around the state.