Cannabis Businesses Prove Profitable For Township, Record $10 Million In Sales

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Sales taxes paid by the township’s four operating cannabis dispensaries totaled to more than $200,000 in 2023, a Township official said.

Township Manager Robert Vornlocker said the Township received $201,076 from the four cannabis retailers operating in 2023. Vornlocker estimated that the Township could see more than $300,000 by the end of 2024.

Cannabis operations pay 2 percent of their gross receipts to the Township. Wholesalers – of which there are currently none operating in the Township – would pay a 1 percent transfer tax on every sale. The fee schedule was set by the Township Council in the 2021 ordinance allowing marijuana licenses in Franklin.

That $201,000 total points to a $10 million cannabis industry in the township, comprised of the four dispensaries that have not been open a full year.

The four cannabis dispensaries operating in 2023 were BLOC – Somerset and Leaf Haus on Easton Avenue, Unity Road on Elizabeth Avenue and Silver Leaf on Route 27.

Silver Leaf was the only medical-only dispensary operating last year, so income from that store was a little less than from the other three, Vornlocker said.

Another dispensary, Theos, has opened on Route 27 and Vince Dominach, the Township’s Economic Development Director, said in an email that “there are others in various stages of tenant fitouts.”

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None of the dispensaries who paid sales taxes in 2023 were open the entire year; two were open for two quarters of the year and two were open for three quarters of the year, Vornlocker said.

Vornlocker said it was “tough to say” what the Township could see in sales tax revenue for 2024, but he did venture a guess.

“Depends on how many new dispensaries open, when they open, and what impact they have on existing dispensaries,” he wrote in an email. “One of the four current dispensaries is medical only, so that has a lower amount of sales. The other three may be impacted by a new dispensary, depending on where the new one(s) is/are located.”

“At this point it would be safe to say the number should be 300k-plus,” he wrote.

Tax revenue from cannabis operations goes into the Township’s general fund.

“Some have suggested using the money for drug education,” Mayor Phil Kramer said. “Perhaps we will do that in the future, but for now we have other funds for that purpose.”

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