Haverhill isn’t the only one wrestling with fees related to cannabis retailers.
State Inspector General Jeffrey S. Shapiro Wednesday called on the Cannabis Control Commission to conduct an audit to confirm stores are paying all state fees following an investigation that found that the agency did not collect about $550,000 in prorated license fees and up to $1.2 million in potential provisional licensing fees from for the two years ending August 2024. Writing to Commission Executive Director Travis Ahern and Acting Chair Bruce Stebbins, Shapiro said it originally got involved after receiving a complaint.
“Our investigation did not find any suggestion of fraud, but it did reveal an egregious operational breakdown that underscores the need for statutory reform. We are pleased to learn that the CCC has recently worked to update the agency’s payment systems and has begun to recoup previously uncollected fees. It is still important to perform an audit to ensure that all current licensees have paid all applicable fees and fully understand what revenue went uncollected, as businesses ceased operations.”
In a separate story today, WHAV details Haverhill’s efforts to collect so-called cannabis impact fees with one of the stores having not paid at all since opening in 2021.
Shapiro acknowledged that neither Ahern nor Stebbins held leadership positions during that two-year period.
“Perhaps more troubling than the uncollected fees is the fact that CCC staff were granting license extensions without authority, and then, when given the authority, failed to collect the associated prorated fee,” Shapiro said. The inspector general explained this happened after authority was inappropriately delegated to the former executive director.