The action comes in the wake of the Board of Selectmen signing a host agreement with the nonprofit William Noyes Webster Foundation, which seeks to set up a medical marijuana cultivation facility in a leased building on Industrial Park Road.

Plymouth Town Meeting recently authorized officials to seek special legislation to charge a 5 percent local excise tax on the cultivation, transfer, or sale of medical marijuana or other cannabis products within the town.

As a nascent medical marijuana industry prepares to launch in Massachusetts, some area communities are starting to pursue ways to potentially tap revenues from the pot-dispensing businesses.


The five-year agreement would provide the town with up to $300,000 a year in payments from the foundation, including donations to the community and payments equal to what the foundation would pay in taxes if it owned its building and was a for-profit entity.

Plymouth’s excise tax proposal originated from a task force created by selectmen about a year ago to explore possible new sources of revenue.

“It’s pretty obvious there are opportunities for municipalities here,” said John Moody, chairman of the town’s Advisory and Finance Committee, and a member of the task force, referring to the revenues that cities and towns might realize from hosting medical marijuana facilities. He said an excise tax “seemed like a reasonable option for us.”

The task force has estimated that a 5 percent excise tax would yield the town about $170,000 in annual revenues from a cultivation facility, assuming a 10,000-square-foot building that produces 759 pounds of medical marijuana annually.

The proposal is based on special legislation filed earlier this year by the town of Dennis, where the William Noyes Webster Foundation has a provisional state certificate to open a dispensary. The town’s proposal also calls for a 5 percent local excise tax.


The foundation initially proposed housing its dispensary and growing facilities in separate sites in Dennis, but now wants to grow the marijuana at the Plymouth site because it has more room. The foundation is seeking state approval for the change, said its lawyer, Valerio Romano.

Quincy, meanwhile, negotiated a host agreement with Ermont, a nonprofit that has provisional state approval to open a medical marijuana dispensary in the city. The deal would require Ermont to provide Quincy with 3 percent of its gross revenues each year, according to Christopher Walker, spokesman for Mayor Thomas P. Koch.

Walker said Quincy is not pursuing a local excise tax because it believes the Legislature is likely to want to address the idea on a statewide basis.

Brockton has a tentative host agreement with a nonprofit, In Good Health, that has a provisional certificate to operate a dispensary with a marijuana growing facility in the city, according to Mayor Bill Carpenter.

Under the proposed deal, the company would pay the city 3 percent of its gross annual income, or at least $100,000, and another 1 percent to nonprofits in the city that provide treatment and other services for people with substance-abuse problems.

Carpenter favors an excise tax but said that, given the uncertainty of achieving that any time soon, he wanted to have the agreement in place to ensure a reliable source of income for the city if the facility begins operating.

The host agreements in Brockton, Plymouth, and Quincy all anticipate the potential of an excise tax with provisions that set limits on how much the provider would owe in combined taxes and payments while also ensuring the community a minimum level of income.


The 2012 ballot initiative that legalized medical marijuana in Massachusetts allows the state to license up to 35 dispensaries, with at least one but no more than five in each county.

The state in January gave initial approval to 20 dispensary applications, but in June issued preliminary certificates to just 11 of them. Among the rejected applications were three by Medical Marijuana of Massachusetts for sites in Plymouth, Mashpee, and Taunton. The group filed a lawsuit in August contesting its elimination.

Plymouth Town Manager Melissa Arrighi said that even as her town pursues the local excise tax, it made sense to also secure a host agreement due in part to the uncertainty about gaining state approval of the tax. Selectmen authorized the host agreement at an Oct. 7 meeting at which they agreed to send a letter of “non-opposition” to the cultivation facility.

The town manager in Dennis, Richard White, said his community’s proposed special legislation had a hearing on Beacon Hill but has not progressed further. He said it may have encountered concern as a proposed new tax and due to the complexities involved.

“It was our way of pushing the Legislature to come up with some comprehensive policy” on how to help cities and towns with the costs of hosting a medical marijuana facility, he said.


Romano said the William Noyes Webster Foundation does not oppose excise taxes as long as they are reasonable.

“We think local municipalities should be compensated for their hosting of a controversial issue,” he said.

John Laidler can be reached at laidler@globe.com.