The city of Bothell is set to receive $86,721 next year in excise taxes from the Liquor and Cannabis Board, a number based off the sales of recreational marijuana, placing it ninth overall in Washington State.

When Initiative 502 passed in 2012 allowing the then-Liquor Control Board to begin developing a system of legal and regulated pot sales, there were no specific revenue sharing mechanisms included.

“So what happened is the original initiation of I-502 didn’t have any money allocated to cities or counties,” said Liquor and Cannabis Board spokesman Mikael Carpenter.

With the passage of House Bill 2136 earlier this year, cities and counties will receive funding from excise taxes beginning in 2016, under certain conditions.

The state allocated $12 million to be distributed to counties and cities over next two years, or $6 million a year, paid quarterly at $1.5 million. For municipalities to receive funding they must allow state licensed marijuana growers, producers and retailer to operate. If a county doesn’t allow pot businesses, but cities do, all the county funding goes to those cities and vice versa. If neither allow marijuana businesses, neither get a check from the state.

Distributed revenue is based off of how much excise tax was collected through retail sales from July 1, 2014 to June 30 in individual municipalities.

Topping the list of 59 cities expecting excise tax returns are Vancouver with $790,516, Tacoma at $447,883, Seattle with $383,316, Spokane at $123,011 and Bellevue at $102,314, according to figures calculated from Liquor and Cannabis Board data.

At the bottom of the list are Bainbridge Island with $728, Yakima at $86, Edgewood with $16, Sunnyside with $13 and Bremerton at $9.18.

Carpenter said Vancouver likely topped the list due to its proximity to Oregon, where until this year, recreational marijuana was illegal.

Union Gap allows marijuana sales, and came in at the number eight spot on the list with $93,722. The city sits adjacent to the much larger city of Yakima, which has banned the sale and production of recreational marijuana in city limits.

While the money is ostensively for enforcing marijuana laws, Carpenter said there are no earmarks or specific programs which cities must create with the funds.

Along with a revenue distribution model in SB 2136, there was also a restructuring of taxes on the marijuana industry.

Previously there was a 25 percent tax between each level of growers, processors and retail. The new legislation did away with this and implemented a flat 37 percent tax paid by the consumer on purchase, which was designed to bring in the same percentage of tax revenue.

Roger Malaky is a manager at Herbal Nation, which opened in August 2014 as one of the first retail pot stores in the state, and is now one of three Bothell pot stores. He said when the SB 2136 came into effect in July, prices began dropping and some people started noticing.

“The customers have. It’s gotten a lot more affordable, because now we can afford to sell it for less, because we’re buying it for less,” he said.

Malaky said this spring, an ounce of marijuana, which is the largest quantity legal to possess for most people in Washington, cost as much as $350. Next week his store will get it’s first shipments of $150 ounces, a more than 200 percent decrease in price.

Seasonal business cycles play into the price drop too.

“There’s a glut of product because the harvest just came in from the fall,” he said.

Growers are able to sell to producers, who sell to retailers, at a lower price with the elimination of tiered taxes. Tax restructuring combined with an abundance of product and market competition has forced prices down.

Herbal Nation was the only retail recreational marijuana store in the Bothell area until April of this year, when Local Roots Marijuana opened a location in Brier, and another along State Route 527, both of which the Liquor and Cannabis Board classifies as Bothell-based.

Consequently, most of the $86,721 Bothell will receive next year was based on sales from Herbal Nation, a proud fact for Malaky.

“We worked hard. We were the second store to open in the Seattle area. That definitely brought in some sale tax and some excise tax,” he said. “We were well received.”

Between July 1, 2014 and June 30 the store sold more than $5 million worth of product, raking in more than $1.25 million in excise taxes.

Total revenue for all three pot stores in Bothell was more than $5.4 million, reaping more than $1.35 million in excise tax, meaning the city of Bothell is receiving a 6.39 percent return on total excise taxes on top of the already existing sales tax.

Malaky hopes the city will use their portion of the revenue to fund drug treatment and outreach programs in the area.

“There has been a lot of addiction coming slowly down from Snohomish,” he said.

City of Bothell spokeswoman Barbara Ramey said the city will begin deciding how to spend the revenue at a budget meeting Nov. 17.

Top 10 Cities by Revenue:

Vancouver   $790,516.28

Tacoma       $447,883.87

Seattle        $383,316.18

Spokane     $123,011.62

Bellevue      $102,314.93

Bellingham  $102,286.57

Buckley       $100,720.89

Union Gap   $93,722.26

Bothell        $86,721.04

Millwood      $83,827.64

Bottom 10 Cities by Revenue:

Covington           $4,565.96

Hoquiam             $3,448.29

Tenino                $1,238.75

Goldendale          $1,186.26

Clarkston             $1,047.34

Bainbridge Island  $728.71

Yakima                 $86.27

Edgewood             $16.63

Sunnyside            $13.85

Bremerton            $9.18