Daily Herald opinion: Questions remain about why DuPage lost millions of dollars in pot revenue

There was a sense of urgency among DuPage officials when they gathered in May 2022 to discuss the county losing millions of dollars in marijuana tax revenue.

At the time, DuPage County Board members said they wanted to find out why someone failed to properly notify the state that it needed to collect the marijuana tax money for the county.

County Auditor Bill White was assigned to investigate how the mistake occurred and suggest ways DuPage could revise its policies to prevent a similar error from happening in the future.

That was 26 months ago. But White did not present his report until last week — and even then, it was short on details about both the responsibility for the mistake and why it took so long to catch it.

“When we ask for transparency and when we ask for accountability, we deserve it. The people of DuPage County deserve it,” county board member Lynn LaPlante said. “I’m really not happy that it took this long to get here.”

LaPlante is right. It is a shame that the report was not released sooner, especially when it left some important questions unanswered.

To summarize what happened, the county board in October 2019 imposed a 3% retail tax on all sales of recreational marijuana in municipal areas of DuPage. Under state legislation, the tax would have taken effect in July 2020.

But county officials learned in fall 2021 — after some raised questions about marijuana tax revenue coming in too low — that the state’s revenue department never got the paperwork.

As a result, DuPage never received 18 months of tax revenue generated by marijuana sales at dispensaries operating in the county. Details about the cost of the error came to light after officials did a full accounting of the potential loss.

The report released by White does make some recommendations, including that the clerk’s office be given clear direction for sending an ordinance or a resolution to another entity or individual.

Meanwhile, county officials have adopted new procedures in response to the marijuana tax error. County board staff, for example, will follow up to ensure the proper agencies have received ordinances involving revenue streams.

Still, our Alicia Fabbre reported that county board members believe the report was too “narrow.”

Some have argued that the county board chairman’s office should have confirmed that state officials received the ordinance. The report from White does not resolve that dispute. It also fails to address why it took so long for DuPage officials to realize the county was not getting the marijuana tax revenue.

Fabbre reported that White shelved his investigation in 2023, saying he believed the issue was “water under the bridge” and that it would be “best to look forward and there was not any advantage to the county to rehash the events.”

If White had not hit the pause button on his investigation, maybe more questions about what went wrong could have been answered. Now, we may never know.