Cannabis revenue in Mansfield helps replace income tax dip in 2026 budget

MANSFIELD — An anticipated $300,000 in revenue this year from Mansfield’s cannabis dispensary will be used to help replace a dip in income tax revenue, city Finance Director Kelly Converse said Tuesday evening.

Converse and Mayor Jodie Perry went over with City Council the numbers in the proposed final budget for 2026, a plan that must be approved by the end of March under state law.

A vote on the budget is expected March 17.

The city started receiving the cannabis sales tax in January. Converse said the city couldn’t include it in the temporary plan approved by City Council in December. It’s averaging about $25,000 per month, she said.

When Ohio voters legalized adult-use recreational cannabis through Issue 2 in 2023, the law required dispensaries to have a 10-percent excise tax paid by consumers with the collected revenue going into the Adult Use Cannabis Fund.

Local communities allowing dispensaries to receive 36 percent of that 10-percent excise tax from that fund.

There are no restrictions on how the money can be used, allowing local officials to allocate it as needed, according to Converse.

Mansfield is the only city, village or township in Richland County that has approved such dispensaries.

The addition of the cannabis revenue nearly matches the decline in income-tax revenue.

Converse said the 2025 city income tax revenues were flat when looking at an average of the last four years, but reflected a slight decline from 2024.

“We’re confident with the way things are going that we’ll be OK,” she told lawmakers. “We are going to watch that like a hawk every month just to see where income-tax revenue is coming in with our projections.”

Perry said she made adjustments in planned 2026 expenditures from the temporary plan, none of them in personnel costs.

“I had to make cuts other places. None of the cuts affected personnel, but it did mean some projects that we were talking about had to be pushed out a little bit further,” she said.

“I think as we are looking forward in the city, there’s a lot of development happening. So as these things come online, we get new residents, we get some of these new jobs, we do think that this is kind of that moment of a pause before growth starts happening,” Perry said.

“As the director has noted in the past, our withholding tax is actually going up. The business net income tax is the laggard here, due to some state changes. Nothing that we’re panicking over certainly, but we kept things flat.”

Second Ward Councilwoman Cheryl Meier asked if the administration could provide lawmakers with a sheet that shows the differences between the temporary and final budgets.

“Would it be possible … 28 (budget) pages is a lot to digest. Would it be possible to get a summary sheet that would show the differences from the temporary to the final?” Meier asked.

The mayor said lawmakers would receive the summary prior to the next meeting.

(Below is a PDF with the the proposed final 2026 budget for the City of Mansfield.)

City Council also on Tuesday:

— joined with Perry in honoring Richland Newhope leaders and clients in proclaiming March as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, pledging to “offer full support to efforts that assist people with disabilities to make choices that enable them to live successful lives and realize their potential.”

— approved the renewal of a $100,000 contract with the Richland Community Development Group to provide economic development services for the city.

— voted to approve the public works director to enter into a five-year contract with American Structurepoint for any needed design engineering at the city’s wastewater treatment plant. A similar construction inspection agreement is planned for K.E. McCartney & Associates, city engineer Bob Bianchi said.

Bianchi said there are two immediate projects: a comprehensive plan on deficiencies and needed repairs to be submitted to the Ohio EPA; and a project to replace aeration blowers at the plant.

— approved the payment of five damage claims brought by residents, totaling $5,090.73. Most claims involved water or sewer line backups, though the largest single claim ($3,131.73) was for vehicle damage sustained when a resident’s car was struck by a city snow plow in January.

— voted to accept a $2,000 donation from Walmart for the city police department.

— discussed an electric aggregation agreement with the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council. A vote is planned March 17.