Politics

Madison County GOP board race has Prenzler and Slusser at odds

Published

2 years ago

March 12, 2024

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Editor’s note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat.It’s not unusual for candidates to wage war on members of their own party during primary elections, but in the Madison County Board chairman’s race, bullets are flying at close range.Incumbent Kurt Prenzler and challenger Chris Slusser, who now serves as county treasurer, work in offices on the same floor of the same building in Edwardsville, walk the same halls, attend the same meetings and deal with many of the same people every day.They were once Republican allies. Slusser supported Prenzler in his successful bids to become treasurer in 2010 and 2014, and Prenzler appointed Slusser to replace him in 2016, when Prenzler was elected board chairman.But in recent months, both campaigns have leveled sharp criticism at the other, including claims of incompetency, corruption, dishonesty and political “dirty tricks.” The primary election is March 19.“Kurt has lost his way, especially in the last four or five years,” Slusser said. “He hired some really bad people for key positions in his administration. They were engaged in wrongdoing and not showing up for work or doing their jobs, and he wasn’t holding them accountable.”Slusser, 46, of Wood River, said Prenzler has failed to keep board members informed, encouraged people to harass them, created chaos and controversy at meetings, caused turnover among employees and focused more on activist issues than the administrative job taxpayers are paying him to do.Slusser said he enjoys being treasurer and wouldn’t leave that position if fellow Republicans hadn’t asked him to run and stop the “craziness.” All Republican countywide elected officials have endorsed him.Prenzler, 68, of Edwardsville, said he makes no apologies for being a conservative activist and not being a “RINO” (Republican in name only), and he’s proud of fighting against COVID-19 mandates and drag-queen story hours at libraries and speaking out on other issues in local communities.Prenzler said some Republicans are opposing him because he has fought for property tax caps, and they want everyone on the same page.“They’re trying to put together the old Madison County political machine,” he said, referring to Democrats in charge for decades. “Except that they’re going to put Rs behind the names.”In some cases, rhetoric in the local campaign resembles that of other Republican primaries across the county, reflecting divisions between right and far-right conservatives.Republican voters in Madison County will choose Prenzler or Slusser to be their nominee for board chairman. No Democrat has yet filed to run in the general election, which will be held Nov. 5.Ethical questions

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioThe Madison County Administration Building last April in Edwardsville.

Prenzler said his problems with Slusser go back to at least 2018, when Slusser wore a listening device to record a conversation with Prenzler and others in his administration for a police task force that former Democrat State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons formed to investigate possible corruption.The investigation resulted in no criminal charges, but the County Board fired two employees.In a recent clash, Prenzler compared Slusser to a former Madison County treasurer who was sentenced to federal prison in 2013 for illegally structuring property tax sales to reward campaign contributors.“Slusser’s own conduct is similar to Fred Bathon’s conduct,” Prenzler stated in an email.Slusser called that an “insane response.” He said everyone knows that he runs a “very ethical office,” and it was because of his high standards that he agreed to help the police task force in the late 2010s.Prenzler’s comment about Bathon last month was in reaction to a report from the county’s ethics adviser, who determined that Prenzler had violated rules against electioneering on county property when he gave a campaign business card instead of a county-issued business card to a county vendor.Prenzler later apologized and said he should have written his cellphone number on a piece of paper instead of the business card.Prenzler accused Slusser and his supporters of instigating the ethics investigation over a minor mistake and “weaponizing the criminal justice system.” He compared it to the situation with former President Donald Trump, who’s facing 91 felony charges in state and federal courts while a candidate.Mick Madison, the County Board’s chairman pro tem, a Republican, asked for the ethics investigation of Prenzler. Slusser denied involvement.The ethics report eventually prompted board members to vote 16-6 to censure Prenzler, a bipartisan sign of disapproval. Madison dismissed his claim that it was a “lynching without due process.”“I would have to do this no matter what elected official was accused,” Madison told Prenzler. “After apologizing, you went into the public and called it a ‘witch hunt.’ You’re misleading the public that there’s people coming after you. You did this to yourself.”Campaign contributions

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioMadison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine last July in his office at the Madison County Administration Building in Edwardsville.

Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine, a Republican, had also referred the ethics allegation against Prenzler to the Illinois attorney general’s office and Illinois State Police. In an email, he told Madison it would be a conflict of interest for his office to prosecute if a crime had been committed.Both agencies declined to take action on the case, which Prenzler held up as vindication.Slusser pushed back, sending a news release stating that Illinois State Board of Elections data showed that Prenzler had accepted 150 political contributions worth $82,000 from vendors, despite his campaign promise not to take money from people working for the county.”Based on Mr. Prenzler’s long-documented track record of hounding county vendors for political donations since he became chairman, I think it’s easy to draw the conclusion that he was attempting to shake down another county vendor in this instance,” Slusser wrote.Prenzler responded with a news release stating that his opponents were making a “mountain out of a molehill” on the business-card issue and accusing Slusser of having his own history of dishonesty and unethical behavior.Prenzler stated that he asked Slusser in 2016 if he had any negative employment history when he was deciding who to appoint as county treasurer, and that Slusser replied “no.”Prenzler alleged that documents and video obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that Slusser was fired from his job as a Southern Illinois University Edwardsville police officer in 2002 for taking confidential papers out of a supervisor’s briefcase and distributing copies in an effort to damage the supervisor’s reputation.“Chris Slusser is a hypocrite who works hard to smear the reputations of others,” Prenzler wrote.Slusser denies being fired from the SIUE job. He said a group of police officers played a “practical joke” on a supervisor involving a letter for a “mail-order bride,” resulting in a hearing but no disciplinary action, and that he and others later resigned due to a “hostile work environment.”Regarding vendor contributions, Prenzler said he didn’t realize the board chairman had no influence over purchasing when he, as treasurer, made the campaign promise; he didn’t know some of his contributors had done work for the county; and he has never accepted money from AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), the union representing half the county’s employees, unlike Slusser.Accounting and law

Joshua Carter

Belleville News-Democrat Madison County Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler sits while being questioned by other board members regarding ethics violation.

Prenzler is a certified public accountant with a law degree, a husband and father of three college-age children. He ran for Madison County treasurer in 2006 and lost before winning in 2010 and 2014. He was elected County Board chairman in 2016 and reelected in 2020.Prenzler often mentions that he “blew the whistle” on Bathon to help federal officials with their bid-rigging case against him. Prenzler also emphasizes his efforts to cut existing taxes and stop the creation of new ones and to reduce county costs as treasurer and board chairman.Prenzler said he has kept the Madison County property tax levy the same since he became chairman, resulting in decreasing tax rates.“I will continue to push the County Board to put PTELL (Property Tax Extension Law Limit) caps on the ballot,” he wrote on a BND candidate questionnaire, referring to caps that would apply to schools and other taxing districts. “Board members have resisted my request four times: 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023. Republicans joined with Democrats to keep tax caps off the ballot.”Prenzler also said he:Backed a non-binding resolution that voters approved in 2018, designating Madison County as a “sanctuary” to protect residents from “unconstitutional gun laws.”Persuaded the Madison County Board of Health to adopt a reopening plan in May 2020, defying a “one-size-fits-all” statewide COVID-19 lockdown, and opposed mask and vaccination mandates.Spoke out against drag-queen story hours at Collinsville and Glen Carbon libraries and helped Glen Carbon residents pass an advisory referendum against them.On the questionnaire, Prenzler wrote that he supports legal immigration but is against spending county money on illegal migrants, blaming Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, for “inviting” them to Illinois.Prenzler identifies “taxes” as the campaign’s most important issue.“I have reduced taxes, defended our freedoms (Second Amendment and COVID freedom) and exposed and fixed corruption, helping to send Democrat Treasurer Fred Bathon to federal prison due to unethical tax sales, saving taxpayers $1 million per year,” he wrote.Prenzler is a regular letter-to-the-editor writer, expressing his opinions on everything from a “multi-gender” bathroom that’s proposed for Edwardsville High School (he’s opposed) to what he calls “machine politics” in Granite City.Prenzler has been endorsed by U.S. Representative Mary Miller, a Republican in Illinois’ 15th District, and the Madison County Conservative Caucus.Policing and businessSlusser lives in Wood River with his wife and two daughters. He holds degrees in criminal justice, speech and business. Besides the SIUE police job, he formerly worked as an investment adviser, finance officer for a real-estate company and vice president of a development company.Slusser was elected to the Madison County Board in 2008 and again in 2016 after losing a 2012 bid to become chairman. After Prenzler appointed him treasurer in 2016, he won election in 2018 and reelection in 2022.

Chris Slusser

via FacebookChris Slusser, who now serves as the Madison County Treasurer, is looking to unseat incumbent county chairman Kurt Prenzler.

Slusser emphasizes his strong involvement in church activities and programs, his long list of civic affiliations and his participation in multiple efforts to defeat referendums for tax increases and government borrowing.“These campaigns have saved county taxpayers tens of millions of dollars,” he wrote on the BND questionnaire.Slusser also said he:Introduced a plan to put the county’s “checkbook” online as a County Board member so citizens could track spending, making it only the second county in Illinois to do so.Oversaw the return of millions of dollars in taxpayer refunds as a member of the former Wood River Township Hospital Board after the taxing district was dissolved.Returned money to the county’s general fund every year as treasurer after spending less than what was budgeted and overhauled its “under-performing” investment portfolio, which went from earning $4.5 million to $34 million a year.Slusser identifies “taxes” and “economic development” as the campaign’s most important issues. He argues that the only way to reduce property taxes is to pass reforms that rely more on sales taxes to fund public schools. He calls PTELL a “gimmick” that won’t work.On the issue of economic development, “I think it’s important that we develop a regional strategy among our communities in Madison County, so they’re not all competing against one another and just desperately throwing incentives at businesses without having a plan and engaging in property negotiations,” he wrote on the questionnaire.“We haven’t had this type of leadership in the county chairman’s office, and our region has suffered as a result.”Slusser said political activism is important, and he has been involved in it, but his top priority as county treasurer is operating the department in a professional and efficient manner.Slusser has been endorsed by Haine, Madison County Sheriff Jeff Connor, Circuit Clerk Tom McRae, Auditor David Michael, County Clerk Linda Andreas, Regional Superintendent of Schools Rob Werden and Illinois State Sen. Jason Plummer of the 55th District, all Republicans.A news release from Slusser’s campaign called it “historic” that 100% of Republican countywide elected officials had endorsed him.If Slusser were to lose in the primary, he would remain treasurer.Republicans in charge

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioThe Madison County Administration Building last April in Edwardsville.

The vast majority of County Board members and elected officials in Madison County were Democrats for decades.Board members selected Democrat Alan Dunstan as chairman in 2002 before the process was changed to make the job elective. He won in 2004 and got reelected twice, beating Slusser in 2012.Prenzler had served as county treasurer for six years by 2016, when he ran for board chairman. He beat Dunstan by only 508 votes out of nearly 125,000 cast in the general election.“I was the first Republican to win a countywide office since John Shimkus, who went to Congress (in 1997),” Prenzler said, speaking of the former county treasurer who became a U.S. representative.Republicans also took over the majority of County Board seats. Today, the makeup is 18 Republicans and eight Democrats, not including the chairman. All other countywide elected officials are Republican, except for one, Democrat Coroner Steve Nonn, who’s retiring this year. One Republican, Nick Novacich, but no Democrat, has filed to run for the office.In other words, the Republican party is firmly in control.But it’s the growing animosity between Prenzler and other Republicans, particularly Slusser, that tends to dominate news cycles. Slusser has stated that he and Prenzler agree on “99% of issues” while disagreeing on execution.“I will actually communicate with County Board members so that they can be properly informed and on board with our agenda, and our meetings will no longer resemble a circus or a Jerry Springer episode,” Slusser wrote on the BND questionnaire.“I plan to begin our County Board meetings with a prayer. I will also repair damaged relationships between the current chairman and the law enforcement community, including the sheriff’s and state’s attorney’s offices, and many others.”The intra-party Republican power struggle rose to new levels in 2022, when the County Board voted 19-6 to strip away some of Prenzler’s powers, including the ability to appoint department heads, and give them to Madison and a vice chairman pro tem.According to the ordinance, Prenzler had exhibited “chronically inept” management, lack of communication and research on important issues, lack of attention to the job and multiple “disastrous” personnel decisions, resulting in millions of dollars in legal costs and settlements.Today, Prenzler maintains that the vote, held on July 6, 2022, was more about outrage over his support of County Board challengers who had promised to put PTELL property tax caps on the ballot and who beat incumbents in the Republican primary on June 28, 2022.“That continues to be the issue right now,” Prenzler said, predicting that people will be unhappy with this year’s property tax bills because of higher levies set by some taxing districts.Blowback from firingsNo discussion on the race between Prenzler and Slusser is complete without mention of Rob Dorman, Madison County’s former information-technology director, and Doug Hulme, former county administrator.Both were hired by Prenzler, and both were fired in 2020 by the County Board in two 26-1 votes.The high-level employees had been accused of ethical violations, including the allegation that Hulme accessed emails of county employees for political purposes with Dorman’s help. Both deny wrongdoing. Hulme has said he was checking for electioneering on county time using county resources, and that he was authorized and obligated to do so.Slusser said he had become aware of Hulme’s efforts to “dig up dirt” on Democrats and Prenzler’s failure to take action, and he felt bound to report it to authorities, leading Gibbons to form the police task force and Slusser to agree to wear a listening device.“At the end of the day, (recording a conversation with Republican officials) was not a popular thing to do,” Slusser said. “But I’m going to do the right thing. If someone is committing felonies or engaging in wrongdoing, I’m not going to turn a blind eye, no what party it is.”Hulme ran for county treasurer in 2022, and Slusser defeated him in the Republican primary.Since their terminations, Dorman and Hulme have filed about 20 lawsuits against Madison County and its officials, as well as many requests for documents through the Freedom of Information Act (Dorman and Hulme estimate 150 requests; Slusser says it’s 500).“I’m doing all this because what they did was so wrong, and if they can do it to me, they can do it to anyone in the United States,” said Dorman, who often acts as his own attorney.In October, Slusser sent a news release that called on Prenzler to demand that his “political allies” (Dorman and Hulme) end their “continuous costly, harassing and frivolous” lawsuits against county officials.Slusser cited Haine’s calculation that the county had spent $270,000 to fight the lawsuits and estimated that employees had worked 2,000 extra man-hours responding to the FOIA requests.Slusser stated that the majority of Dorman and Hulme’s lawsuits had been dismissed due to “lack of merit” and that judges had sanctioned them in some cases, forcing them to pay county legal fees. He called it a “waste of taxpayer funds” and an “abuse of the legal system.”“Anyone who claims to be a fiscal conservative and concerned about taxpayer money would’ve already called for an end to this madness,” Slusser wrote. “But our Chairman remains silent. We need a new Chairman.”Dorman and Hulme said some of their lawsuits have been dismissed due to “technicalities” or “biased” judges in Madison County, but they have successfully petitioned to get some heard outside the Third Judicial Circuit (Madison and Bond counties).Prenzler said he implored County Board members in 2020 not to fire Dorman and Hulme without a proper administrative review and warned them that it would result in lawsuits requiring the county to spend millions of dollars to fight litigation and pay compensation.“Every employee is entitled to an administrative review,” Prenzler said.Teri Maddox is a reporter with the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.

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Poll: Support for Missouri abortion rights amendment growing

Published

1 year ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A proposed constitutional amendment legalizing abortion in Missouri received support from more than half of respondents in a new poll from St. Louis University and YouGov.That’s a boost from a poll earlier this year, which could mean what’s known as Amendment 3 is in a solid position to pass in November.SLU/YouGov’s poll of 900 likely Missouri voters from Aug. 8-16 found that 52% of respondents would vote for Amendment 3, which would place constitutional protections for abortion up to fetal viability. Thirty-four percent would vote against the measure, while 14% aren’t sure.By comparison, the SLU/YouGov poll from February found that 44% of voters would back the abortion legalization amendment.St. Louis University political science professor Steven Rogers said 32% of Republicans and 53% of independents would vote for the amendment. That’s in addition to nearly 80% of Democratic respondents who would approve the measure. In the previous poll, 24% of Republicans supported the amendment.Rogers noted that neither Amendment 3 nor a separate ballot item raising the state’s minimum wage is helping Democratic candidates. GOP contenders for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer and secretary of state all hold comfortable leads.“We are seeing this kind of crossover voting, a little bit, where there are voters who are basically saying, ‘I am going to the polls and I’m going to support a Republican candidate, but I’m also going to go to the polls and then I’m also going to try to expand abortion access and then raise the minimum wage,’” Rogers said.Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Kehoe has a 51%-41% lead over Democrat Crystal Quade. And U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is leading Democrat Lucas Kunce by 53% to 42%. Some GOP candidates for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer have even larger leads over their Democratic rivals.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioHundreds of demonstrators pack into a parking lot at Planned Parenthood of St. Louis and Southwest Missouri on June 24, 2022, during a demonstration following the Supreme Court’s reversal of a case that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion.

One of the biggest challenges for foes of Amendment 3 could be financial.Typically, Missouri ballot initiatives with well-funded and well-organized campaigns have a better chance of passing — especially if the opposition is underfunded and disorganized. Since the end of July, the campaign committee formed to pass Amendment 3 received more than $3 million in donations of $5,000 or more.That money could be used for television advertisements to improve the proposal’s standing further, Rogers said, as well as point out that Missouri’s current abortion ban doesn’t allow the procedure in the case of rape or incest.“Meanwhile, the anti side won’t have those resources to kind of try to make that counter argument as strongly, and they don’t have public opinion as strongly on their side,” Rogers said.There is precedent of a well-funded initiative almost failing due to opposition from socially conservative voters.In 2006, a measure providing constitutional protections for embryonic stem cell research nearly failed — even though a campaign committee aimed at passing it had a commanding financial advantage.Former state Sen. Bob Onder was part of the opposition campaign to that measure. He said earlier this month it is possible to create a similar dynamic in 2024 against Amendment 3, if social conservatives who oppose abortion rights can band together.“This is not about reproductive rights or care for miscarriages or IVF or anything else,” said Onder, the GOP nominee for Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District seat. “Missourians will learn that out-of-state special interests and dark money from out of state is lying to them and they will reject this amendment.”Quade said earlier this month that Missourians of all political ideologies are ready to roll back the state’s abortion ban.“Regardless of political party, we hear from folks who are tired of politicians being in their doctor’s offices,” Quade said. “They want politicians to mind their own business. So this is going to excite folks all across the political spectrum.”

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Democrat Mark Osmack makes his case for Missouri treasurer

Published

1 year ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Mark Osmack has been out of the electoral fray for awhile, but he never completely abandoned his passion for Missouri politics.Osmack, a Valley Park native and U.S. Army veteran, previously ran for Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District seat and for state Senate. Now he’s the Democratic nominee for state treasurer after receiving a phone call from Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Russ Carnahan asking him to run.“There’s a lot of decision making and processing and evaluation that goes into it, which is something I am very passionate and interested in,” Osmack said this week on an episode of Politically Speaking.Osmack is squaring off against state Treasurer Vivek Malek, who was able to easily win a crowded GOP primary against several veteran lawmakers including House Budget Chairman Cody Smith and state Sen. Andrew Koenig.While Malek was able to attract big donations to his political action committee and pour his own money into the campaign, Osmack isn’t worried that he won’t be able to compete in November. Since Malek was appointed to his post, Osmack contends he hasn’t proven that he’s a formidable opponent in a general election.“His actions and his decision making so far in his roughly two year tenure in that office have been questionable,” Osmack said.Among other things, Osmack was critical of Malek for placing unclaimed property notices on video gaming machines which are usually found in gas stations or convenience stores. The legality of the machines has been questioned for some time.As Malek explained on his own episode of Politically Speaking, he wanted to make sure the unclaimed property program was as widely advertised as possible. But he acknowledged it was a mistake to put the decals close to the machines and ultimately decided to remove them.Osmack said: “This doesn’t even pass the common sense sniff test of, ‘Hey, should I put state stickers claiming you might have a billion dollars on a gambling machine that is not registered with the state of Missouri?’ If we’re gonna give kudos for him acknowledging the wrong thing, it never should have been done in the first place.”Osmack’s platform includes supporting programs providing school meals using Missouri agriculture products and making child care more accessible for the working class.He said the fact that Missouri has such a large surplus shows that it’s possible to create programs to make child care within reach for parents.“It is quite audacious for [Republicans] to brag about $8 billion, with a B, dollars in state surplus, while we offer next to no social services to include pre-K, daycare, or child care,” Osmack said.Here’s are some other topics Osmack discussed on the show:How he would handle managing the state’s pension systems and approving low-income housing tax credits. The state treasurer’s office is on boards overseeing both of those programs.Malek’s decision to cut off investments from Chinese companies. Osmack said that Missouri needs to be cautious about abandoning China as a business partner, especially since they’re a major consumer of the state’s agriculture products. “There’s a way to make this work where we are not supporting communist nations to the detriment of the United States or our allies, while also maintaining strong economic ties that benefit Missouri farmers,” he said.What it was like to witness the skirmish at the Missouri State Fair between U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Democratic challenger Lucas Kunce.Whether Kunce can get the support of influential groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which often channels money and staff to states with competitive Senate elections.

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As Illinois receives praise for its cannabis equity efforts, stakeholders work on system’s flaws

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1 year ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Medical marijuana patients can now purchase cannabis grown by small businesses as part of their allotment, Illinois’ top cannabis regulator said, but smaller, newly licensed cannabis growers are still seeking greater access to the state’s medical marijuana customers.Illinois legalized medicinal marijuana beginning in 2014, then legalized it for recreational use in 2020. While the 2020 law legalized cannabis use for any adult age 21 or older, it did not expand licensing for medical dispensaries.Patients can purchase marijuana as part of the medical cannabis program at dual-purpose dispensaries, which are licensed to serve both medical and recreational customers. But dual-purpose dispensaries are greatly outnumbered by dispensaries only licensed to sell recreationally, and there are no medical-only dispensaries in the state.As another part of the adult-use legalization law, lawmakers created a “craft grow” license category that was designed to give more opportunities to Illinoisans hoping to legally grow and sell marijuana. The smaller-scale grow operations were part of the 2020 law’s efforts to diversify the cannabis industry in Illinois.Prior to that, all cultivation centers in Illinois were large-scale operations dominated by large multi-state operators. The existing cultivators, mostly in operation since 2014, were allowed to grow recreational cannabis beginning in 2019.Until recently, dual-purpose dispensaries have been unsure as to whether craft-grown products, made by social equity licensees — those who have lived in a disproportionately impacted area or have been historically impacted by the war on drugs — can be sold medicinally as part of a patient’s medical allotment.Erin Johnson, the state’s cannabis regulation oversight officer, told Capitol News Illinois last month that her office has “been telling dispensaries, as they have been asking us” they can now sell craft-grown products to medical patients.“There was just a track and trace issue on our end, but never anything statutorily,” she said.

Dilpreet Raju

Capitol News IllinoisThe graphic shows how cannabis grown in Illinois gets from cultivation centers to customers.

No notice has been posted, but Johnson’s verbal guidance comes almost two years after the first craft grow business went online in Illinois.It allows roughly 150,000 medical patients, who dispensary owners say are the most consistent purchasers of marijuana, to buy products made by social equity businesses without paying recreational taxes. However — even as more dispensaries open — the number available to medical patients has not increased since 2018, something the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office “desperately” wants to see changed. Johnson said Illinois is a limited license state, meaning “there are caps on everything” to help control the relatively new market.Berwyn Thompkins, who operates two cannabis businesses, said the rules limited options for patients and small businesses.“It’s about access,” Thompkins said. “Why wouldn’t we want all the patients — which the (adult-use) program was initially built around — why wouldn’t we want them to have access? They should have access to any dispensary.”Customers with a medical marijuana card pay a 1% tax on all marijuana products, whereas recreational customers pay retail taxes between roughly 20 and 40% on a given cannabis product, when accounting for local taxes.While Illinois has received praise for its equity-focused cannabis law, including through an independent study that showed more people of color own cannabis licenses than in any other state, some industry operators say they’ve experienced many unnecessary hurdles getting their businesses up and running.The state, in fact, announced last month that it had opened its 100th social equity dispensary.But Steve Olson, purchasing manager at a pair of dispensaries (including one dual-purpose dispensary) near Rockford, said small specialty license holders have been left in the lurch since the first craft grower opened in October 2022.“You would think that this would be something they’re (the government) trying to help out these social equity companies with, but they’re putting handcuffs on them in so many different spots,” he said. “One of them being this medical thing.”Olson said he contacted state agencies, including the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, months ago about whether craft products can be sold to medical patients at their retail tax rate, but only heard one response: “They all say it was an oversight.”This potentially hurt social equity companies because they sell wholesale to dispensaries and may have been missing out on a consistent customer base through those medical dispensaries.Olson said the state’s attempts to provide licensees with a path to a successful business over the years, such as with corrective lotteries that granted more social equity licenses, have come up short.“It’s like they almost set up the social equity thing to fail so the big guys could come in and swoop up all these licenses,” Olson said. “I hate to feel like that but, if you look at it, it’s pretty black and white.”Olson said craft companies benefit from any type of retail sale.“If we sell it to medical patients or not, it’s a matter of, ‘Are we collecting the proper taxes?’ That’s all it is,” he said.State revenue from cannabis taxes, licensing costs and other fees goes into the Cannabis Regulation Fund, which is used to fund a host of programs, including cannabis offense expungement, the general revenue fund, and the R3 campaign aiming to uplift disinvested communities.For fiscal year 2024, nearly $256 million was paid out from Cannabis Regulation Fund for related initiatives, which includes almost $89 million transferred to the state’s general revenue fund and more than $20 million distributed to local governments, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.Medical access still limitedThe state’s 55 medical dispensaries that predate the 2020 legalization law, mostly owned by publicly traded multistate operators that had been operating in Illinois since 2014 under the state’s medical marijuana program, were automatically granted a right to licenses to sell recreationally in January 2020. That gave them a dual-purpose license that no new entrants into the market can receive under current law.Since expanding their clientele in 2020, Illinois dispensaries have sold more than $6 billion worth of cannabis products through recreational transactions alone.Nearly two-thirds of dispensaries licensed to sell to medical patients are in the northeast counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will. Dual-purpose dispensaries only represent about 20 percent of the state’s dispensaries.While the state began offering recreational dispensary licenses since the adult-use legalization law passed, it has not granted a new medical dispensary license since 2018. That has allowed the established players to continue to corner the market on the state’s nearly 150,000 medical marijuana patients.But social equity licensees and advocates say there are more ways to level the playing field, including expanding access to medical sales.Johnson, who became the state’s top cannabis regulator in late 2022, expressed hope for movement during the fall veto session on House Bill 2911, which would expand medical access to all Illinois dispensaries.“We would like every single dispensary in Illinois to be able to serve medical patients,” Johnson said. “It’s something that medical patients have been asking for, for years.”Johnson said the bill would benefit patients and small businesses.“It’s something we desperately want to happen as a state system, because we want to make sure that medical patients are able to easily access what they need,” she said. “We also think it’s good for our social equity dispensaries, as they’re opening, to be able to serve medical patients.”Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, who was the first statewide project coordinator for Illinois’ medical cannabis program prior to joining the legislature, wrote in an email to Capitol News Illinois that the state needs to be doing more for its patients.“Illinois is failing the state’s 150,000 medical cannabis patients with debilitating conditions. Too many are still denied the patient protections they deserve, including access to their medicine,” Morgan wrote, adding he would continue to work with stakeholders on further legislation.Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

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