Sacramento To Receive $1.2 Million To Increase Social Equity In Cannabis Industry
Source: Sacramento Business Journal, Sam Boykin
Photo: Cassandra Jennings is the CEO of the Greater Sacramento Urban League, which helps administer the Cannabis Opportunity Reinvestment and Equity program. (DENNIS MCCOY | SACRAMENTO BUSINESS JOURNAL)
The local cannabis industry is poised to get a financial boost as the Sacramento City Council is expected to vote tonight to accept $1.19 million from the California Bureau of Cannabis Control.
The state grant funding can be used to reimburse local equity applicants — or people eligible for equity support — for certain startup cannabis business costs, including local and state fees as well as business-related training and equipment costs.
“When it comes to the local cannabis industry, the City of Sacramento has been working diligently to level the playing field for anyone who wants to start a new business,” said Davina Smith, head of the city’s Office of Cannabis Management, in a news release. “This new funding will go a long way in creating more fairness and equity and helping to right historic wrongs.”
After the legal recreational cannabis market opened Jan. 1, 2018, the Sacramento City Council established the Cannabis Opportunity Reinvestment and Equity program to assist individuals who were harmed by the disproportionate enforcement of cannabis-related crimes. The CORE program is designed to reduce the barriers to entry into the local cannabis industry through training, mentoring, financial and technical support and other assistance. It’s administered by the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Sacramento Urban League.
After the CORE program was established, the city’s Office of Cannabis Management applied last August for the state’s Local Equity Grant Program. The funds can be used for items including capital investments, assistance with securing business locations and payment of fees related to regulatory compliance.
The new funding will allow the city to reimburse eligible participants for up to $25,000 for some startup costs.
To be eligible for the reimbursement, applicants must either be a CORE participant or eligible for the CORE program, own 51% of the proposed business and have submitted a business operating permit application to the city.
“The Bureau of Cannabis Control equity grant brings much needed resources to the City of Sacramento to further the positive impact GSUL’s Sac GreenEquity CORE program has had on new business development in cannabis,” said Cassandra Jennings, CEO of the Greater Sacramento Urban League, in a news release. “The opportunity to partner with the Mayor and the City Council on an equity and inclusion vision to implement new business creation — and to develop our next generation of industry leaders and future entrepreneurs under the CORE program — is a local hard-won gain for those communities most affected by the war on drugs and an exciting collaborative venture.”
https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2020/02/04/sacramento-to-receive-1-2-million-to-increas