Can I Sign California Banking Claim

Can i industry sign banking california claim

[Music] California has joined a group of eight states that have legalized the adult use of cannabis in the United States and over half of the US has legalized some form of medicinal use despite this trend there is still a conflict with state and federal law which presents a challenge to the implementation of proposition 64 in California one of the most significant issues is access to banking and financial services for the cannabis industry voters passed Proposition 64 last November and it raised some very significant issue so obviously this is going to be an area of business that's gonna have mighty economic implications for the state the Finance Corporation has been involved because of local governments inherent authority under proposition 64 to tax proposition 64 imposes a 15% state excise tax and a flat cultivation tax it also allows cities and counties to impose their own cannabis taxes in addition to seven billion dollars to the state's economic activity potentially about a billion dollars in revenue estimates of a cannabis is a Schedule one drug like heroin and because it's a Schedule one drug it triggers a couple of other provisions not only just the criminal statutes in the federal government but also statutes relating to the Bank Secrecy Act and the anti-money laundering Act and that puts a significant roadblock in regards to making progress in this specific area few people want to talk about the challenges I think a lot of people like to romanticize the future and how lucrative is going to be and how exciting it is but there are some people that are committed to looking at the challenges the state treasurer is looking towards a banking solution the working group consists of 17 members representatives from law enforcement from the cannabis industry from the regulatory authorities from the taxing agencies to try to make sure that we address this holistically and to build a partnership so we've spent a lot of time and energy looking at this what this has allowed us to do is to interact and engage with financial institution to help us think this through I appreciate c6 participation on the working group the cannabis industry currently has about seventy percent of the industry unbanked as a tax collector I collect property taxes other fines and fees as well as now the cannabis tax when you're dealing with an unbanked or a banked challenge industry it deals with cash and certainly when when cash is being used to come in to our county offices to make their tax payments that always brings a lot of public safety concern we have people make appointments we require that they give us ID in advance of the individual bringing the cash they come to their appointment it's already known how much they're going to be bringing us we're seeing amounts as small as five thousand dollars which could be typical for a property tax payment but we're seeing cash amounts as large tooth over three hundred thousand dollars I have two of my employees that go into a safe counting room with the individual tax payer the cash is counted in front of the taxpayer these are scenes that we've seen on television if you think about those cash machines just spinning spinning spending a lot of money the people that are coming to pay the taxes are the good guys they want to get into compliance and come out of the shadows here in Monterey County we have one of the richest agricultural areas in the world but now I think Monterey County will become known for a new green crop with the cannabis industry really growing tremendously in our region one of the lessons we've learned is that data is key one of the challenges to banking this industry is the need for additional information it's paramount that banks and financial institutions have information about their clients and customers and information is all about data what we are trying to create is a pathway so that the best information is available see stocks working towards a solution what we are working on is the development of a joint powers authority which is a public entity made up of our members we believe our joint powers authority solves a couple of problems one is it enables the collection of data into one spot so that we can ensure tax compliance at the local level and - we believe that over time that same information that we're collecting will help ameliorate the banking problem by enabling financial institutions to have greater assurance about who their customers are county staff and the Board of Supervisors we've engaged in trainings through SESAC we'd afford to be part of the solution and trying to find ways that we can make a banking system work in our state OSI SEC was a very earnest and serious partner try to address the critical issues that impact the residents throughout the state of California see sac is working closely with our partners at the CSEC Finance Corporation and with the state treasurer's office to develop solutions to this complex and challenging policy issue