California lawmakers seek tax cuts for sluggish pot industry

California's much-hyped, year-old marijuana industry fell woefully short of expectations in 2018 and industry leaders blame their inability to compete with the state's robust black market, which doesn't pay the taxes and navigate the red tape they do.

So yesterday, several cannabis-industry supporting state lawmakers proposed to slash taxes as a way to jump start California's legal marijuana marketplace.

Democrat Assemblyman Rob Bonta from Oakland has proposed to temporarily reduce the 15 percent tax consumers pay at the retail counter to 11 percent and eliminate the $148 per pound of pot farmers pay for three years. Bonta said the state's legal marijuana industry is "not occurring as we hoped, expected and wanted."

Analyst GreenEdge says legal California sales fell to $2.5 billion in 2018 from $3 billion in 2017 when only medical marijuana was legally available.

Cannabis company Bloom Farms chief executive Michael Ray says "excessive taxation hurts legal businesses and consumers while spurring the illegal market. Lowering taxes is a step in the right direction towards growth in the legal market here in California."