Baltimore County Seeks Public Input on Desired Uses for its Community Reinvestment and Repair Fund

TOWSON, MD - In an effort to determine the best and most appropriate use of its Community Reinvestment and Repair Fund – Baltimore County’s portion of the state revenue generated by the sale of recreational cannabis, officials today debuted its CRRF Community Input Survey. The survey, open to all County residents, was created to gather input from community members about which issues are most pressing to address in the affected communities, and how community members would like to see these dollars prioritized.
 
"Baltimore County is a large, diverse jurisdiction, and we have a responsibility to ensure that our government serves our communities in an equitable way,” said Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski. “We look forward to deploying this new funding opportunity in ways that lift up and support communities that have been disproportionally harmed by past practices.”

The Community Reinvestment and Repair Fund (CRRF), which contains a share of state revenue generated by cannabis sales, is providing resources to local jurisdictions to support initiatives that benefit low-income communities and communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the enforcement of cannabis prohibition.
 
In 2022, Maryland voters approved the legalization of recreational adult-use cannabis. Under the law, a portion of the state revenue generated by the sale of cannabis is dedicated to the Community Reinvestment and Repair Fund. The amount provided to Baltimore County – as with each jurisdiction throughout the state – is based on the total number of cannabis possession charges between July 1, 2002 and January 1, 2023 compared to the total number of cannabis possession charges in the state.
 
The fund — managed and administered via a partnership between the Maryland Office of Social Equity, an independent executive agency established by the Cannabis Reform Act of 2023, and the Office of the Comptroller — also includes revenues generated from license conversion fees paid by those businesses in the medical cannabis industry approved to transition into the adult-use cannabis market. Prior to disbursing the fund, each jurisdiction in Maryland must enact local legislation establishing the purposes for which the funds can be used. As Baltimore County prepares to move forward with this requirement, the community input survey will provide valuable information to guide the County’s work.
 
The Baltimore County Community Input Survey – open through Sunday, May 19 – can be found here.
 
More information about the CRRF can be found here.