Reducing Sacramento’s cannabis tax would decrease funding for local youth | Opinion

Last summer and fall, I joined many other young people across Sacramento in the campaign to create a Children’s Fund in our city budget (also known as Measure L). I walked door to door talking to neighbors about the ballot measure; I texted and called voters; and I recruited other young people, including my little brother, to assist in the campaign. Our hard work paid off, and Measure L passed with strong support.

The measure requires the city to set aside 40% of its revenue from the local cannabis tax — amounting to roughly $8 to $9 million annually — to create the Children’s Fund. It also requires the city to establish an Oversight Commission responsible for creating five-year strategic plans and an evaluation process to ensure the fund has the greatest impact possible. The Oversight Commission will work with the Sacramento Youth Commission on the plan.

As the chair of the Sacramento Youth Commission, I look forward to ensuring that young people are central to creating policy that will improve the lives of local youth.

In late November, however, I was shocked to learn that the law and legislation committee of the city council is debating a proposal to reduce the city’s cannabis tax by as much as half or more. If the council were to approve such a proposal, the Children’s Fund would consequently be cut by 50% or more. Rather than investing $8 million in child and youth services, the city would only have $4 million — or even less.

Over a five-year period, we could lose a whopping $20 million for kids in our region.

This past summer, Sac Kids First and Mayor Pro Tem Mai Vang convened about 70 policy experts and young people to strategize how to best use the new funds. Children’s advocates came up with some life-saving ideas such as a guaranteed basic income program for youth who are aging out of the foster care system. These vulnerable youth often have nowhere to go and no adult support, and some become victims of human trafficking. According to the 2022 Point-in-Time Count, about 50% of homeless young adults on our streets were in the foster care system. By empowering foster youth with resources, we’ll reduce homelessness and make a long-term difference for hundreds of young people in our city.

This summer, Sac Kids First’s partner organizations and EBAYC, a local youth-serving nonprofit, coordinated ten listening sessions that were attended by over 130 middle and high school-age youth. Based on the feedback from these sessions, a team of young leaders are now creating a youth survey that will be deployed in most of our major high schools starting in December. Sac Kids First will bring the feedback from these surveys to the oversight and youth commissions to support the development of the five-year strategic plans.

All of this work would be undermined and diminished if the council were to reduce this funding stream. Hundreds of people across the city are working together to do amazing things for children and youth. Now is not the time to dash our dreams; it’s the time for the city to follow through on the voters’ mandate to make a significant investment in the youth of Sacramento.