From: pat d
To: Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft; Malia Vella; Tony Daysog; Trish Spencer; John Knox White; City Clerk; Finance Subject: [EXTERNAL] Cannabis Tax Opposition
Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2022 3:08:32 PM
Dear City Officials,
Concerning the cannabis tax, I would ask you to reconsider. A tax will drive prices up, send customers to other cities and help the illegal cannabis business to flourish in Alameda. No cannabis tax will have new cannabis customers coming to Alameda and patronizing other Alameda businesses as well. Thank you for your consideration.
Respectfully,
Pat Doherty
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From: JUSTIN JARIN
To: Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft; Malia Vella; Tony Daysog; Trish Spencer; John Knox White; City Clerk; Finance Subject: [EXTERNAL] Cannabis tax opposition
Date: Monday, May 2, 2022 8:50:34 PM
Hello,
I'm writing this email to oppose the city cannabis tax. One of the benefits of shopping at local dispensaries rather than Oakland dispensaries is the prices are more affordable in a large part due to tax rates. Please keep cannabis more affordable in Alameda.
Sent from my iPhone
From: John Ngu
To: Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft; Malia Vella; Tony Daysog; Trish Spencer; John Knox White Cc: City Clerk; Finance; Lara Weisiger; Gerry Beaudin
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Opposition to Cannabis Tax (Agenda Item 7a) Date: Monday, May 2, 2022 3:27:51 PM
Attachments: We sent you safe versions of your files.msg Alameda City Council Coalition Letter.docx.pdf
Mimecast Attachment Protection has deemed this file to be safe, but always exercise caution when opening files.
Good afternoon Mayor Ashcraft and City Councilmembers,
I hope this email finds you well. I am writing on behalf of the four retailers selected to operate cannabis retail businesses in the City of Alameda. We respectfully submit this letter in opposition to the cannabis tax being contemplated at the Council meeting on May 3rd as part of agenda item 7a.
We appreciate the opportunity to live, work, and contribute to the vibrancy that makes our community so special, and believe a cannabis tax would be harmful to our local cannabis industry at this time given so many other communities are lowering their cannabis taxes in the wake of a global pandemic, wholesale cannabis market crash, and onerous taxation at the state and federal levels.
We sincerely hope you will take our letter into consideration.
Thank you,
John
John Ngu | Owner
510-507-4150 | [email protected]
www.goembarc.com | @embarcsupply
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited.
From: Jason Buckley
To: City Clerk; Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft; Trish Spencer; Malia Vella; John Knox White; Tony Daysog Subject: [EXTERNAL] Item 7A
Date: Monday, May 2, 2022 2:58:54 PM
Dear council,
It's come to my attention that a local cannabis tax is on the agenda for tomorrow night's meeting. I am vehemently opposed to this. For one, these types of taxes are regressive and hurt lower income folks disproportionately. But also, these last few years have been bad. Like really bad. I mean, do I really have to go into detail about just how much life sucks now compared to just a few years ago? And people need relief. Everything is more expensive while wages are still fairly stagnant. And you just gave the landlords the go-ahead to jack our rents again while gas is upwards of $6/gallon. So maybe consider not screwing people harder than we're already being screwed here, particularly on a product that can be used to help ease our suffering? Or perhaps you would prefer people to just go to unregulated and untaxed black market sources? I'm not prepared to go full comic book villain about this like a certain former resident and local joke who had his tantrums involving. and I quote, "Bruce Lee brownies," but seriously, this is super misguided, greedy, and kind of cruel.
Thank you,
Jason Buckley
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