SLO County voters want to tax marijuana, by a 3-to-1 margin

This story was updated at 12:35 a.m. Wednesday.

San Luis Obispo County voters overwhelmingly favored passing a special tax on marijuana businesses in unincorporated areas of San Luis Obispo County.

With all precincts reporting, 76.8 percent of voters said "yes" to passing a county-proposed tax of up to 10 percent.

San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors Chairman John Peschong hailed the voters' apparent decision in a phone call Tuesday night.

"I'm glad that we had such a great victory on this," he said. "It definitely shows that a strong majority want cannabis enforcement in San Luis Obispo County."

To pass, the measure requires 50 percent of the vote plus one. The vote won't be final until all mail-in ballots are counted in the coming days.

The measure calls for a 4 percent sales tax on gross receipts from marijuana businesses to begin in July and run through 2020. The tax would then increase 2 percent every year to a maximum of 10 percent.

The tax is envisioned to only pay for the cost of administering the local cannabis industry — not to bring additional revenue for other needs, such as road improvements or homelessness. But as a general tax, revenue will go into the general fund and the Board of Supervisors can choose how it's spent.

This story was originally published June 5, 2018 at 8:40 PM with the headline "SLO County voters want to tax marijuana, by a 3-to-1 margin."