Kodiak weighs a 3% marijuana tax, and a dispensary owner cries foul

Kodiak wants to tax marijuana to pay for community well-being — and at least one dispensary owner thinks the borough keeps picking on the wrong vice.

The Borough Assembly takes a proposed 3% marijuana sales tax to public hearing Aug. 6. Voters would have the final say on the Oct. 6 ballot, and if it passes, the tax starts Jan. 1, 2027. The money would flow into a new Community Well-Being Fund for health, education, and economic-development programs.

At 3%, Kodiak would sit near the bottom of the state's range — Palmer taxes marijuana at 2%, Anchorage and Mat-Su at 5%, and Bethel at a steep 15%.

The pushback is that pot is an easy target. "I am continually perplexed by our local government's proclivity to choose marijuana as the sin of choice when brainstorming ways to raise revenue, when there are other vices on the island outselling marijuana tenfold," Kodiak dispensary owner Janice Stevens told the Assembly in July.

The Assembly advanced the measure 4-1 and takes testimony Aug. 6 before deciding whether to send it to voters.