Santa Barbara County wants its cannabis program fees to fully cover the cost of staff review – and increasing fees will help do that, according to the County Executive Office.

On Tuesday, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors unanimously supported increasing business licensing fees for initial applications, compliance, and annual reviews.

Members of the board said the cannabis program fees should pay for the program administration, which includes reviewing applications for cultivation, processing, retail dispensary and other businesses, and doing compliance checks and annual license reviews.

Cannabis businesses in Santa Barbara County need to get land-use permits and business licenses to operate legally.

The initial business license application fee was increased to a range of $5,180 to $10,450, from a range of $3,380 to $5,758. The fees were developed in 2018, and the supervisors voted to increase them last year.

Some compliance-related staffing is funded from fees – such as the Sheriff’s Office detectives who review applications, security systems and do background checks – while an enforcement team is funded by cannabis tax revenues, said Brittany Heaton, cannabis program manager for the County Executive Office.

The county’s cannabis tax revenues have been lower than expected for several years, partly due to a surplus of supply statewide following legalization of recreational marijuana.

Cannabis taxes this year were $10.5 million lower than expected, and were the “one dark spot” in a high-revenue year, budget director Paul Clementi said in March.