[By Matt Freeze]<\/p>\n
OWEGO \u2014 The Tioga County Legislature voted to accept and distribute $120,000 in cannabis sales tax revenue to Waverly at its special meeting last Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
County Administrator Jackson Bailey II said county officials hadn\u2019t budgeted for the receipt of those funds since they weren\u2019t sure what would come in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have to provide 75% of the distribution back to the towns and villages where the cannabis dispensary is located,\u201d Bailey said.<\/p>\n
With $160,000 received, the county is disbursing $120,000.<\/p>\n
Legislator Bill Standinger said he felt that the state was foolish to allow the sale of cannabis in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, given the fact that it\u2019s occurred and there\u2019s money to be distributed, I\u2019m okay with the way it\u2019s being distributed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Chairman Tracy Monell noted the Waverly dispensary is the only one in the county. \u201cNice going, (Legislator) Andy (Aronstam).\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love it,\u201d Aronstam said.<\/p>\n
Legislator David Cantella said he agreed with Standinger\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if we can count on it in the future, and it may cause more problems than (money) we\u2019re taking in,\u201d Cantella said. \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t seem like the right path, but it\u2019s the state, and we\u2019ve got to recognize it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aronstam said the village trustee\u2019s perspective was that, given New York State had decided to legalize and regulate cannabis, local elected officials needed to do what was best for the village within those parameters.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one was in favor of legalizing cannabis, but if it was going to be legalized, you might as well take advantage of what the state gives you,\u201d Aronstam said.<\/p>\n
Legislator Jo Ellen Rose said she would like to see stronger measures to prevent marketing the products to young people.<\/p>\n
Mayor Keith Correll said Friday the money goes directly into the general fund, and the money received so far has been helpful with things such as offsetting the tax revenue loss from the revaluation of Elderwood.<\/p>\n
(Matt Freeze is a Senior Writer with the Sayre Morning Times.)<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[By Matt Freeze] OWEGO \u2014 The Tioga County Legislature voted to accept and distribute $120,000 in cannabis sales tax revenue to Waverly at its special…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":94125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n