Rural counties on Tuesday continued approving local option taxes on recreational marijuana sales by huge margins, a trend that’s played out over every election since the state legalized weed in 2020.
Granite County, meanwhile, upheld a ban on recreational pot sales that passed in the June primary. West Yellowstone and Manhattan both rejected local proposals to ban recreational sales.
Deer Lodge affirmed permission of recreational marijuana within city limits by 53% of the vote, a difference of about 70 ballots. County commissioners there had put the matter to a vote after hearing concerns from local opponents earlier this year.
Fifty-two percent of Great Falls voters went against a proposed ban on “any marijuana business,” and Cascade County at large approved local option marijuana taxes.
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The state caps the local option sales tax on recreational and, separately, medical marijuana sales, at 3%. Those generated funds are split largely between the county (50%) and the municipalities (45%) while the state takes 5% of the revenue to defray the administrative costs of administering the tax revenues to local governments.
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