A 10,000 square-foot greenhouse is the first facility for California Cannabis Co. in Lemoore. But more growth is in the pipeline. Photo by Frank Lopez
A boom in development, largely spurred by marijuana, has the potential to bring Lemoore out of years of deficit spending. And with the rise of retail weed as well as agricultural grows comes a new fertilizer company, office space, a new custom home lot and a beverage company manufacturing and distributing cannabis-infused lemonade.
For the past three years, Lemoore relied on deficit spending to pay staff and maintain city services, said City Manager Nathan Olson.
The city in Kings County didn’t have a large tax base to begin with, mostly driven by small retail and mom-and-pop stores. Their biggest retailer was Kmart, which closed in 2018.
In 2020, the city budgeted for roughly $1.8 million in sales tax.
Pension costs, insurance and worker’s compensation had out-paced tax income.
The City’s projected fiscal year 2021 budget published in June 2020 notes that “the City cannot afford another year (FY22) of deficit spending. Cash balances of $1.8M will not sustain the current spending trend.”
The City in June forecast $10.7 million in revenues with $13.5 million budgeted in expenditures.
If revenues were not increased, the budget would call for either a layoff of 19-38 employees or employees would have to take a 36% cut in payroll.
The city employed 71 general…
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A 10,000 square-foot greenhouse is the first facility for California Cannabis Co. in Lemoore. But more growth is in the pipeline. Photo by Frank Lopez
A boom in development, largely spurred by marijuana, has the potential to bring Lemoore out of years of deficit spending. And with the rise of retail weed as well as agricultural grows comes a new fertilizer company, office space, a new custom home lot and a beverage company manufacturing and distributing cannabis-infused lemonade.
For the past three years, Lemoore relied on deficit spending to pay staff and maintain city services, said City Manager Nathan Olson.
The city in Kings County didn’t have a large tax base to begin with, mostly driven by small retail and mom-and-pop stores. Their biggest retailer was Kmart, which closed in 2018.
In 2020, the city budgeted for roughly $1.8 million in sales tax.
Pension costs, insurance and worker’s compensation had out-paced tax income.
The City’s projected fiscal year 2021 budget published in June 2020 notes that “the City cannot afford another year (FY22) of deficit spending. Cash balances of $1.8M will not sustain the current spending trend.”
The City in June forecast $10.7 million in revenues with $13.5 million budgeted in expenditures.
If revenues were not increased, the budget would call for either a layoff of 19-38 employees or employees would have to take a 36% cut in payroll.
The city employed 71 general…
