California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) announce 78 grants totaling $35.5M

By: Sharjeel Sohaib

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Jun 10, 2022

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California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development

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GoBIZ announced 78 grants totaling $35.5M in awards through the California Community Reinvestment Grants (CalCRG) program!

Latest Awards

This latest round of awards will support the economic justice and well-being of communities across our state that have been disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs.

The California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) has granted a total of $35.5 million in California Community Reinvestment Grants (CalCRG) to 78 groups.

The fund comes from the Adult Use of Marijuana Act’s cannabis tax income, designed to help areas that have been disproportionately affected by the War on Drugs.

“Now in its fourth year, the California Community Reinvestments Grants program continues to be an important tool for communities that still face systemic restrictions and barriers to opportunity and equity. This latest round of awards will support the economic justice and well-being of communities across our state.”

~ Said Dee Dee Myers, director of GO-Biz and senior advisor to Gov. Newsom

We Covered this in our Weekly Wire Roundup

Who is Eligible for The Grants? 

Local health departments and qualified community-based nonprofit organizations can receive grants from GO-Biz to support job placement, mental health treatment, substance use disorder treatment, system navigation services, legal services to address reentry barriers, and medical care linkages.

Previously enacted federal and state drug policies resulted in the mass incarceration of people of color, reduced access to social services, loss of educational attainment due to reduced federal financial aid eligibility, prohibitions on public housing and other public assistance, and family separation, according to state officials.

How do Grants Benefit the Community? 

The California Community Reinvestment Grants (CalCRG) program has already disbursed cannabis-supported cash for the fourth year.

The funding will assist with job placement, legal services for community reintegration, and mental health and drug abuse treatment through local health departments and nonprofit groups.

Community-based organizations such as the YMCA of San Diego County, United CORE Alliance, Bay Area Legal Aid, San Jose State University Research Foundation, and the Urban Association of Forestry and Fire Professionals are the award beneficiaries this year.

JobTrain, GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles Regional Reentry Partnership, Flintridge Center, and Recovery Cafe San Jose will get the largest funding in this round, each receiving $900,000.

The TransLatin@ Coalition will receive $450,000 to help break poverty cycles and boost career development for transgender, gender non-conforming, and intersex immigrant women.

The initiative was officially announced in April 2020, with award applications opening in September 2020.

The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) stated late last month that since the state’s adult-use market opened in 2018, the state has collected approximately $4 billion in marijuana tax revenue. In the first quarter of 2022, the state received around $294 million in cannabis income from excise, cultivation, and sales taxes.

In recent months, marijuana tax policy in California has been a focus of concern for stakeholders, regulators, and even the governor.

Last month, for example, Newsom released an amended budget proposal asking for the state’s marijuana production tax repeal and changing cannabis tax revenue distributions.

The May amended budget would make efforts to combat the criminal market and make the legal industry more competitive, including eliminating the cultivation fee now imposed on marijuana firms.

Newsom’s proposal also calls for establishing monetary thresholds for cannabis tax-funded programs and removing any surplus money, as the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) noted in its recent report.

California received $817 million in adult-use marijuana tax revenue during the previous fiscal year. That was a 55 percent increase in cannabis revenue for state coffers compared to 2020-2021.

Meanwhile, state officials introduced a new tool last month that allows consumers to view an interactive map that shows where marijuana companies are allowed to start — and where they are prohibited — across the state.

More than half of the state’s towns and counties prohibit any form of cannabis licensee from operating in their jurisdiction, which activists say is an issue that has allowed the underground market to grow despite voter-approved legalization.

Health departments and qualified community-based nonprofits

Through this program, grants are awarded to local health departments and qualified community-based nonprofit organizations to support the following activities: job placement, mental health treatment, substance use disorder treatment, system navigation services, legal services to address barriers to reentry, and linkages to medical care.

“Now in its fourth year, the California Community Reinvestments Grants program continues to be an important tool for communities that still face systemic restrictions and barriers to opportunity and equity. “This latest round of awards will support the economic justice and well-being of communities across our state.”

Dee Dee Myers, director of GO-Biz and senior advisor to Gov. Newsom.

$100 Million in Tax Credits

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