Election 2023: Voters to decide if cannabis businesses, growers will be allowed in Chatham
Editor's note: This is the first in a series of articles previewing ballot issues and candidates vying in the April 4 consolidated election. Early voting starts Feb. 23.
Voters in Chatham will see two advisory referendum questions on their ballot for the April election pertaining to the sale and production of adult-use cannabis.
Passage of the measures would allow dispensaries to establish businesses and growers, cultivation centers, and transporters to operate within the village of an estimated 14,400 residents.
The measure comes after the state of Illinois permitted the recreational use of marijuana starting in 2020 for people 21 and older. Last year was a record-breaking year in cannabis sales, according to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, with adult-use cannabis dispensaries reporting more than $1.5 billion in sales.
Chatham village president Dave Kimsey acknowledged the potential tax revenue benefit in a recent interview with The State Journal-Register. Currently, the village gets a portion of the 6.25% state adult-use cannabis retailers' occupation tax but misses out on the municipal tax - which can reach as much as 3% according to the Illinois Department of Revenue - since the sale of adult-use cannabis is prohibited within the village.
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Kimsey projected the 3% tax could levy approximately $200,000 for the village annually instead of a bordering municipality. Currently, Chatham residents have to go neighboring communities such as Springfield to acquire cannabis for recreational use, which receives that revenue.
"Perspective-wise, our annual motor fuel tax in the village, our receipts, are around $400,000 a year," Kimsey said, this money going towards infrastructure improvement in Chatham. "So, when you start to compare the two numbers, you see there is a significance to that."
An affirmative vote in the April 4 election would also reverse a September 2019 vote by village trustees to keep adult-use cannabis businesses from establishing operations. In a 4-2 vote, the board determined the businesses "would present adverse impacts upon the health, safety, and welfare" of residents.
Related:Planning commission recommends no adult-use pot in B-1 zoning
Kimsey did not have a vote in the matter but described the approach taken by the village as "wait and see" in 2019. Now, almost four years later, he said the time had come to ask residents for their opinion.
Chatham residents Brian White and Dallas Gregory expressed different views on the cannabis questions when asked Thursday.
"I don't see any problems with it," said White, a resident of the village since 1993.
Gregory has lived in Chatham for about two-and-a-half years and is split on both ballot questions. He plans on supporting the question permitting the sale of recreational marijuana but will vote 'no' on whether an individual or business could grow cannabis within the village limits.
He worries about who it might bring to the community.
"I'm concerned that growing (cannabis) could cause crime to follow," Gregory said. "I don't want anything that would bring crime to Chatham."
No prospective businesses have reached out to the village because, under the 2019 ordinance, they cannot establish operations, the village president said.
"Prior to really spending any time with anybody or seeing any proposals, we would have to change that posturing from the village," he said. "That's part of what drives this. I don't like to say no to a proposal before we even have an opportunity to see what is being proposed, but right now that's where we are."
Contact Patrick Keck: 312-549-9340, pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Chatham to decide if adult-use marijuana businesses are allowed
