Milford City Council has decided against the sale of recreational marijuana in the city

MILFORD, Del. – Although the state of Delaware legalized recreational marijuana two years ago, individual municipalities are fleshing out their regulations around the establishments. The City of Milford has voted against the recreational sale of marijuana 6-2. The Milford Mayor, Todd Culotta, said the meeting went as he expected.

“To be honest with you, most people in favor of sales don’t live in the municipality, they live in other cities that don’t allow it. Most of the folks against it, all but one, live within city limits, and those are the tax-paying citizens.”

Future reconsideration of the matter is possible; however, some residents believe the wrong decision was made.

Lifelong resident and member of the Milford City Planning Commission, Jim Purcell, doesn’t believe the council did enough legwork on their own.

“I think we did a great job of putting together ordinances of when you can sell, where you can sell, and what part of the city you could sell. The City Council did not take any of our recommendations, they just flat out said no.”

Mayor Culotta doesn’t think it was that simple, he told WMDT; the math doesn’t make sense.

“From a tax-paying standpoint, the state will tax at 15%. None of that tax revenue goes back to the municipality, it goes back to the state.”

Purcell believes this problem can be resolved. “We’re a separate jurisdiction, we could put whatever fees in place that we wanted, if it does not exist on our level. The City Council could come up with a tax or fee on the operation within our city limits.” Said Purcell.

But for the time being, Mayor Culotta will remain committed to this decision. “But right now, it’s not the time. We’re not going to be the pioneers to do it.”

Purcell added that while the tax is set at 15%. It would be up to individual municipalities to work with state lawmakers to rework the formula.