Oakland became the first city, under the guidance of medical marijuana advocates, to tax and regulate cannabis. Like many California cities, their is a severe budget shortfall, and it made perfect sense for the city to tax a state-approved product in order to prevent more schools from being shut down. 80% of Oakland residents approved the tax. Democracy in action.
But who NEEDS democracy when 'law' enforcement and politicians can dictate how we should live our lives? Who needs schools so long as we have enough jails? Not Los Angeles, apparently, which is moving in the opposite direction as Oakland by moving to shut down dispensaries instead of taxing them.
There were politicians who used their brains in L.A. -
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn has proposed that the council consider imposing a tax on sales of medical marijuana.
Los Angeles has hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries. As California's local and state governments look to plug their budget deficits, attention has started to focus on marijuana as an untapped source.
Oakland voters will decide Tuesday on a medical marijuana tax.
"In this current economic crisis, we need to get creative about how we raise funds," Hahn said in a statement. "A tax on medical marijuana could enable the city to continue providing services we might otherwise have to cut."
Hahn's motion was supported by Councilmen Dennis Zine and Bill Rosendahl.
Instead of raising more BOE taxes from dispensaries plus CITY taxes, LA will now receive fewer of the former and NONE of the latter. Given the millions of $$ raised from weed, why have the city go into default because of racist, anti-cannabis political viewpoints?
Even if it results in warning signs like this:
One of the nation's top financial credit services Wednesday issued a negative outlook for Los Angeles, which is struggling with a $212-million deficit. The move could lead to a lower credit rating for the city and ultimately increase its cost for borrowing money.
Moody's Investors Service reduced its opinion of L.A.'s finances from "stable" to "negative" because city officials delayed addressing the budget shortfall -- expected to grow to $485 million in 2010-2011 -- and have proposed tapping reserves to balance the books.
Moody's also expressed concerns about some City Council members' opposition to a plan to cut 1,000 city jobs before July.
On another note, there was some good news yesterday.. The LA Times picked it up later as well-
http://www.latimes.com/...