IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich. (WZMQ) – Iron Mountain City Council delved into the distribution of state payouts for its 2 local marijuana licenses. City Manager Jordan Stanchina shed light on the intricacies of how the state divides the 10% excise tax from marijuana sales, emphasizing Iron Mountain’s receipt of approximately $120,000 from 2023.
Stanchina explained, “The city has 2 licenses with dispensaries within the city, so there’s a revenue payment we receive from the state annually, this year it was approximately $59,000 per license.” He elaborated on the breakdown, stating, “The state split the 10% excise tax on the marijuana sales. It gets split up three ways: 30% goes towards the city and the county, so that each gets 50%. The school aid fund gets 35 and the department of transportation gets the other 35 with the Cities approximately $120,000 that we just discussed. We dedicated that to pre-fund our retiree health insurance liabilities.”
Highlighting the city’s specific role, Stanchina noted, “The payment for the other percentages, the cities have no involvement for the department of transportation or the school aid fund. We just strictly deal with our 15% that we receive from the state that goes to cover the retiree health insurance.”
The Iron Mountain School District’s finance director added insight, pointing out a roughly $450 increase per pupil from last year, though the connection to the marijuana tax remains uncertain.
For school year 2022-23 the district received $9150 per student, and for 23-24 school year, the district received $9608 per pupil from the state.
