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Trinity County Cannabis Equity Program

 

The Trinity County Cannabis Division was informed on January 30th that Go-Biz has granted $1.8 million to our local equity program. Funds will be disbursed beginning in April 2024. In the meantime, please take the Equity Grant Survey below to get your application process started, then below the survey are some additional details to clarify the equity process that we will be following.

NEW EQUITY PRE-APPLICATION SURVEY:

This survey will aid Cannabis Division Staff to informally identify applicants interested in Equity Grant funds and compare them with DCC equity applicants. If you check "YES" to any or all of the qualifying criteria on this survey, you will be sent a link to formally apply for grant funds 30-45 days prior to your licensing and/or renewal date. This survey in no way guarantees funds and is for informational pre-qualifier purposes for Staff.

Click image to take the survey:

 

In anticipation of the roll out of our Local equity grant program, Cannabis Division staff intends to roll out a streamlined & organized process in disbursing grant funds for license-related fee waivers and technical assistance.  To keep you abreast of our plan, we wanted to give you an overview of the process knowing that as we roll out our soft launch, we will no doubt need to make adjustments along the way to keep it a timely and balanced process for all involved.

 

 

With the expectation that grant funds are to be received in April, (with no exact dates given by Go-Biz yet), here is how we anticipate the process to begin:

  • On Wednesday, March 27, 2024 ALL licensees and applicants will receive by email a short survey to informally identify qualified equity applicants in order to compare responses with the DCC equity applicant list. ** Please know, you will NOT receive an equity application until 45-60 days prior to your licensing and/or renewal date. 
  • Also on Tuesday, March 26th, staff will begin a soft launch to open the program by dripping equity applications, applicant questionnaire, instructions, and a link to a step-by-step process “funnel” for submission of equity applications to the following subsets of applicants/licensees:
    • April renewals
    • Applicants that have been noticed, but have NOT picked up their licenses
    • Applicants “stuck” in the CEQA process that may  need technical assistance
    • Then, May renewals
  • Staff will offer assistance to grant applicants by blocking out office hours on March 28, April 2, 4, & 9th from 2:00-3:30pm to take in COMPLETED Equity Applications.  After we see how these blocked days go, we will open up more, and potentially offer days through the month in Hayfork once a location is secured. Until then, we are requiring that ALL supporting documentation for the equity applications be submitted completely. We will NOT accept incomplete equity applications. Any incomplete applications will go to the back of the queue to be processed after completed apps are processed.

As we navigate this first round of applications, we will make any necessary adjustments and continue sending applications to monthly renewals and new applicants respectively as we move through the year.  Please be advised that Equity applications will NOT be openly accessible on our website as we will be sending them out directly to applicants in a timely manner.

Additional Local Equity Program Information:

Trinity County’s application in 2022-23 with the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development( GO-Biz), for type 2 Equity grant funds was not approved. Staff  has recently submitted the 2023-24 Equity manual and grant solicitation application. We will release information here on our website, as well as, our social media channels as soon as an announcement is made. In the meantime, the solicitation and Trinity County's Equity Program manual is here for your review:

These programs are currently the STATE tax relief programs for equity businesses: 

The Cannabis Equity Tax Credit - Available for applicants who have been approved for state fee relief. Tax credit up to $10,000 available through December 31, 2027. Administered by the Franchise Tax Board.

Vendor Compensation for cannabis retailers – Qualified equity retailers can retain 20% of the cannabis excise tax due on retail sales. Available through December 31, 2025. Administered by the CDTFA.