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AMESBURY, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Cannabis dispensaries in the state typically pay an "impact fee" of up to 3% of their annual revenue to their host city, but the stores in Amesbury got it waived this year.
Impact fees were introduced to offset things like traffic and disruptions, but Amesbury Mayor Kassandra Gove waived them for the City's cannabis retailers, as there have not been many disruptions as of late.
With the extra funds in the wake of the waive, CNA Store Chief Executive Officer Rob DiFazio decided to donate money to charity.
"We're not a negative impact to our City, we're a positive impact- so we turned around and paid it forward to Veterans Northeast Outreach Center in Haverhill, they house homeless veterans," DiFazio said.
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DiFazio said that the costs covered by their impact fees are paid directly for individual mitigations such as police details and speed hump installations. Massachusetts law detailed that the impact fees were to be "reasonably related" to the costs imposed on the host municipality.
Point sale marijuana shops were not made eligible for COVID-19 relief and cannot write off normal business expenses like liquor stores can, because the United States federal government does not recognize the legalization of marijuana.
WBZ's Karyn Regal (@Karynregal) reports.
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