Evanston, Illinois' Reparations Committee distributed $25,000 to 44 residents. The program faces funding issues due to lower-than-expected cannabis tax revenue. The city is exploring alternative funding sources, including real estate transfer taxes and donations, after struggling with low cannabis sales and facing competition from neighboring states and the unregulated market. The city has received $276,588 from its real estate transfer tax so far and $55,956.22 in donations as of September 2024.
The City of Evanston , Illinois' Reparations Committee issued $25,000 to 44 residents earlier this month in reparations' payments and is currently looking for other ways to keep the program funded. Committee members have reportedly previously discussed the lack of revenue from their cannabis tax source, due to low sales at the two dispensaries in the city.
'When you tax something at a high rate, customers are less likely to purchase that product and are more likely to identify alternatives,' Tiffany Ingram, the executive director of the Cannabis Business Association of Illinois, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. 'And so that's why you see customers going to other places like Michigan or Missouri, if they're close to the border, or purchasing products from the illicit market or purchasing alternatives like unregulated Delta 8,' she said. According to the city’s resolution, Evanston committed the first $10 million of the city’s Municipal Cannabis Retailers' Occupation Tax — a 3% tax on gross sales of cannabis — to fund the program. SAN FRANCISCO RESIDENTS BAND TOGETHER TO SHUT DOWN REPARATIONS FUND, CLAIMING IT’S ‘DIVIDING’ THE CITY 'We're always excited to see the ways in which municipalities determine how they want to use cannabis revenues to improve their communities. So it was definitely — I believe — Evanston was the first,' Ingram told Fox News Digital. Another way the program is funded is through the city’s Real Estate Transfer Tax Ordinance. According to a city memo, the fund had received $276,588 from Evanston’s real estate transfer tax. The fund was primarily supported by the cannabis sales tax and real estate tax money, since there were no philanthropic donations this year as of Jan. 31, and it received $1,010 last year. Furthermore, the city reported $55,956.22 in donations to the Reparations Fund as of September 2024. Evanston was the first city in the nation to pass a reparations plan, pledging $10 million over a decade to Black residents in November 2019. Established in 2019 and approved by the City Council in 2021, the program issues $25,000 direct cash payments to Black residents and descendants of Black residents who lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969. CHICAGO MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON TAKES JAB AT CLARENCE THOMAS WHILE DEFENDING CITY'S REPARATIONS TASK FORCE As the committee members are considering other sources to create revenue, members discussed on Feb. 6 a municipal tax on Delta 8 products. Alderman Krissie Harris recognized that the tax would not significantly increase revenue, though it would 'help keep moving that number forward' in the reparations process, The Daily Northwestern reported. 'It’s really important for people to understand we pay as we have the money, and it’s not that we’re withholding from paying everyone,' Harris said. 'It’s just we have to accumulate the funds to make sure we can pay.' So far, 137 Evanston residents have received reparations payments totaling $3.47 million, and more are expected by year’s end, reaching 171 recipients with about $4 million allocated to direct descendants. Evanston's City Attorney Alexandria Ruggie wrote in a city memo that the city has the ability to tax Delta 8 products as a 'home rule unit.' 'A question has arisen as to whether the City may tax Delta 8 products in the City,' Ruggie said. 'Additionally, Delta 8 products are generally quite cheap, so any tax revenue generated from Delta 8 sales would likely be relatively small, accompanied by minimal impact on the purchase of these products,' she wrote. She added that, 'Lawmakers and cannabis industry representatives have long asserted that unregulated THC products like Delta 8 can be more potent than regulated marijuana, and therefore, dangerous to consumers.' Ruggie told The Daily Northwestern that Delta-8 THC products are sold in Evanston, but not included in the Illinois Cannabis Tax Regulation Act. MARYLAND CHURCH TO ISSUE REPARATIONS GRANTS TO 'BUILD UP BLACK COMMUNITIES' DUE TO ‘SYSTEMIC RACISM' Ingram told Fox News Digital that taxing Delta-8 THC products is concerning, considering that it's unregulated. 'Delta- 8 is basically an unregulated, hemp-derived intoxicant,' she said. 'We always say before we talk about taxing Delta- 8, we need to talk about protecting consumers.' The Cannabis Business Association of Illinois sent Fox News Digital a letter it penned to the chair of the Committee on License and Consumer Protection, Debra Silverstein, showing support of an ordinance that would prohibit 'the sale of hemp-derived cannabinoid products within the City of Chicago.' In response to the Cannabis Business Association of Illinois’ concerns and the future of funding for the reparations program in general, a spokesperson for the City of Evanston told Fox News Digital that the city cannot comment 'due to litigation.' Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, told Fox News Digital earlier this month it filed a lawsuit against Evanston, to stop the city from paying Black residents reparations. The $25,000 payments to Evanston residents are intended to cover housing expenses. The city committed to focus on housing because the issue is 'the strongest case for reparations.' 'There is sufficient evidence showing the City’s part in housing discrimination as a result of early City zoning ordinances in place between 1919 and 1969, when the City banned housing discrimination,' the city explained. Reparations can take many forms but broadly refer to payments or other compensation to the descendants of Black Americans affected by slavery or past discriminatory government policies. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP In July 2019, Evanston’s Equity and Empowerment Commission held community meetings to gather feedback from community members on what reparations would look like. In addition to housing, the community members identified four other priorities including, economic development, education, finances, and 'history/culture.'
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