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Cannabis businesses push back as Franklin council pares proposed licensing fees
Summary
Cultivators and microbusiness owners urged the council to reconsider flat or high fees; councilmembers proposed and passed an amendment collapsing cultivator tiers and lowering some annual license fees before introducing the revised cannabis ordinance for first reading.
Local cannabis cultivators and microbusiness owners urged Franklin Township to revise proposed cannabis licensing fees, telling the council the originally proposed amounts could drive smaller firms out of the market.
Aaron Epstein of Fresh Grow (self-identified) said his company has paid $150,077 to the township in transfer taxes over the past 12 months and asked the council to base license fees on a cost study rather than a flat high fee. He said an across-the-board $20,000 annual license would not be sustainable for smaller operators and requested that the council carry the ordinance to another meeting to work with industry representatives on the fee structure.
Trent Brinkowski, a micro-cultivator, said a $20,000 fee would be particularly harmful to microbusinesses created to facilitate local participation in the industry. Council members acknowledged those concerns; township staff explained the introduced draft had already reduced the originally introduced fees and proposed a structure tied to state tiers and municipal administrative cost assumptions.
Councilmember Embarrassing (on the record) proposed combining cultivator tiers and setting annual license fees of $2,500 for the smallest combined tier, $5,000 for the middle combined tier and $10,000 for the largest combined tier; microbusinesses were proposed at $500 annually in the revised text. After discussion of comparables in neighboring towns and the cost of municipal oversight, the council voted to adopt Embarrassing’s amendments and then introduced the revised cannabis ordinance (ord. 45-15A-26) on first reading, with public hearing and final adoption set for Aug. 11, 2026.
Council members and staff emphasized that the underlying legal principle is fees should bear a reasonable relationship to the cost of local regulation and inspections, and several members requested the council re-evaluate fees after the program has been in place and state fees or requirements change.
