Local Politics: Show me the (weed) money

Columbus received a fat $4.24 million check from the State of Ohio earlier this month, because for the past two years, people here have sold weed. But according to last year’s city budget estimate, that’s only half of what we should be getting. And nobody seems to know precisely what we’re going to use it for. 

Let’s back up. In 2023, Ohio residents passed Issue 2: the Marijuana Legalization Initiative, which made recreational weed consumption legal. Under that legislation, the state added a sales tax to cannabis, with 36 percent of the money collected from the tax going to something called the Host Community Cannabis Fund. 

The Host Community Cannabis Fund would serve as an incentive for communities to welcome, or “host,” cannabis dispensary businesses; broadly, any tax revenue sent into that fund would be proportionally paid back to the community from which it came. That community’s local government could then use the money for “any approved purpose.” And so, everybody wins. 

Except for, over the past two years, the local communities. Thanks to a legislative loophole, the text of Issue 2 passed by voters didn’t actually include a system for, or instructions on how to, distribute the money accrued in the Host Community Cannabis Fund back to the communities that generated it. And because there was no legal framework to give the money back, the state just kept it. Which is, I’m sorry, the most ridiculous explanation ever. 

It took the state until August 2024 to finish legislatively setting up legal weed dispensaries. And so, 2025 was the first year that Columbus planned for state cannabis tax disbursals in its operating budget. The city currently hosts 17 dispensaries, and is one of the more progressive areas in the state (Franklin County voted in favor of Issue 2 by nearly 68 percent). 

Owing to the presumed high demand for cannabis businesses, Columbus estimated a total payment of state weed money of $8 million. 

“Marijuana sales began in 2024 and payments to municipalities are expected during the latter half of 2025,” the city’s 2025 operating budget reads. “Total revenues are projected at $8 million in 2025.” The budget also estimated future payments of $8.4 million in 2026, $9.4 million in 2030, and $12.4 million in 2034. 

But that didn’t happen. Because of the legislation gap, the state made no payouts in 2025. Expecting no changes, the city budgeted to receive $0 in weed tax revenue in its 2026 operating budget.

“Marijuana sales began in 2024 and payments to municipalities were expected during the latter half of 2025,” the 2026 budget reads. “The State of Ohio has not released any of the funds to Ohio’s municipalities that are owed revenue. Total revenues are projected at $0 in 2026.” All future projections were also adjusted to $0. 

More recently, however, a new bill – Senate Bill 56 – formally established a method of appropriations for how the state will give out the cannabis host fund money, which will now be distributed monthly. “The tax commissioner shall make distributions under this division by the end of each month based on tax collections from the preceding month,” the bill reads. 

And so, on Jan. 7, Columbus received a payment of $4,241,736.94. That’s much less than the city originally expected – and it’s not entirely clear where the rest of that projected $8 million is for 2025 – but this funding is more than dared hoped for in this year’s budget.

“This amount was the tax due the City since the start of Adult Use Cannabis sales in August of 2024 through November 30, 2025,” the city’s deputy auditor, Darlene Wildes, said in response to an inquiry from Matter News. “We now anticipate receiving this tax revenue monthly from the State of Ohio. Based on tax collections so far, we estimate the monthly amount we will receive at approximately $250,000 to $300,000 per month.”

And yet, it’s still not entirely clear what officials are planning to do with this money now that we have it. 

State law allows for the money to be used for “any approved purpose,” without any explicit definitions about what that approved purpose might entail. In December 2024, the City Council had planned to put it in a special fund from which money could be pulled for specific initiatives. 

In an Instagram post discussing the issue last fall, City Council President Shannon Hardin said the funding would go towards “critical needs like housing, homelessness, and safety.” 

Based on the City Council’s most recent budgeting decision to award $2 million to the Columbus Promise college readiness program and the $50 million in cuts enacted by Columbus City Schools last year, this funding might also reasonably be allocated towards education. “Earlier this month, Council passed an ordinance to reaffirm our intention to spend the $4.2M the city received about two weeks ago on human services, education, workforce development needs and more,” Hardin wrote in a statement to Matter News on Wednesday. 

Jennifer Lockrey, a spokesperson for Mayor Andrew Ginther’s office, said that any new use would have to be approved by the City Council. 

“Mayor Ginther would like to see these funds directed toward critical needs constrained in this year’s budget – such as additional support for the Resilient Housing Initiative, the Community Shelter Board and other human services needs – so they strengthen core services for Columbus residents,” Lockrey said in a statement. 

City Council budget deliberations are ongoing this month and will resume Monday at the Council’s next meeting.