ST. LOUIS — Some St. Louis leaders question if the mayor’s office is passing the blame on a marijuana mistake that cost the City of St. Louis more than half a million dollars.
On Wednesday, aldermen fired back after a blunt assertion from an aide to the mayor. The backlash over finger-pointing involved the city's costly marijuana mistake. City leaders are now calling for a resolution so it doesn't happen again.
Come Jan. 1, dispensaries in the city will charge customers a tax when they purchase marijuana products. Those dollars will benefit the city. That could've been happening for months now but it hasn't. The question is: Who's to blame?
"So it's never been clear whose responsibility it really was and it's not listed out anywhere,” Nancy Cross, with the Mayor’s Office, said. "It wasn't in the legislation that put it on the ballot."
Those comments came during a Budget and Public Employees Committee meeting Wednesday during a discussion over how St. Louis missed out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in marijuana tax revenue. After the city passed the marijuana tax, someone was supposed to notify the state.
No one did and the mayor's aide said state law is unclear on who should have.
"It wasn't in the ordinance that was passed. The Board of Elections had not acted on it like they had at other times and the mayor's office had no knowledge that it was our responsibility to do,” Cross said. "It was an issue, an error. It could be the fault of everyone. It could be the fault of no one because of the way the state statutes were written."
Some members of the Board of Aldermen found fault with the assertion they should have done something.
"I would push back and say it’s not the Board of Aldermen's fault … I don't think the board, that it's our role to after we legislate and pass a tax and then to reach out to the department as we’re not an administrative body. We’re a legislative body,” Alderman Rasheen Aldridge said.
"I don't want us to start saying it's this person's fault. It's this group's fault. It's this entity’s fault. One thing I believe is leaders have to lead from the front. We waste time when we spend time making excuses,” Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier added.
"Sonnier, I'm sorry that you and Alderman Aldridge are offended by what I said but I am standing here having taken responsibility for this issue,” Cross added, adding that the Mayor’s Office reached out to the state once it was notified of the issue.
She is suggesting to the Board that whenever there's a tax change in the future, they should put it in writing who will notify the state. City leaders at the committee meeting seemed to agree that's a good way forward.