KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. Share your story idea with Ryan.
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The Cass County, Missouri, Commission approved a resolution this week to return about $900,000 to the Missouri Department of Revenue from a previously distributed adult-use marijuana sales tax.
The commission received two demand letters from the Department of Revenue, one on March 5 and another on April 3, to return the money.
KSHB 41 Cass County reporter Ryan Gamboa received both letters through a Missouri Sunshine Request on Thursday.
"The state told us all along that the tax collected on the marijuana sales may have to be returned," Presiding Commissioner Bob Huston told Gamboa. "The county has not used any of that sales tax and will return (it) to the Department of Revenue when asked."
The commission approved the refund Wednesday in a resolution.
The resolution states the Missouri Supreme Court "authorizes a county to impose the local adult-use marijuana sales tax only in an unincorporated area of the county and not at a dispensary located within the boundaries of the an incorporated village, town or city."
The letters sent to the county said the Department of Revenue had received and processed refund requests for previously distributed marijuana sales tax and demanded repayment from the county, which coincides with state law's framework for tax refunds.
Cass County voters approved a 3% adult-use marijuana sales tax back in 2023.
In February, a consumer class-action lawsuit was filed in Cass County against the commission claiming they unlawfully imposed a 3% sales tax on adult-use marijuana purchases, despite Missouri Courts ruling those county-level taxes unconstitutional.
Plaintiffs in the case are asking for restitution for all buyers who have paid the tax since Oct. 1, 2023, along with damages, injunction and a constructive trust over funds the county retained.
Cass County Presiding Commissioner Bob Huston declined to comment on the lawsuit as litigation is pending.
The plaintiff, Joan Hoffman, is demanding a jury trial.
On Monday, the county filed a motion to dismiss the class-action lawsuit, arguing Missouri law requires such claims to go through the state's tax refund process, not the courts.
The motion states state law requires direct refunds to be handled by the Missouri Department of Revenue and not the counties.
KSHB 41 News reached out to the Department of Revenue for comment and is awaiting a response.
Cass County claims the plaintiffs have not met mandatory steps outlined by the Department of Revenue, calling it "legally insufficient."
On Tuesday, Hoffman's attorneys filed an amended petition that keeps the same core argument, but it expands on its allegations, legal theories and the method of relief.
The amended arguments push to strengthen the plaintiffs and provide a clearing assertion that the county should not have retained the sales tax money — it argues that there is no beneficial law on the books for a refund mechanism.
The amended lawsuit continues to push for financial compensations as the only remedy.
KSHB 41 News reached out to Hoffman's attorney for comment and is awaiting a response.
In Wednesday's meeting, a Cass County commissioner gave an update on the process, according its online public recording.
"We're being asked by the Department of Revenue to return the sales tax that was decided by the courts to be erroneously collected in the first place, and a deal at one point roughly $1 million that we collected over about two years," Steve Cheslik said. "They asked for a total of close to $900,000 of that. So, I expect more to be requested later, but we'll deal with it as it comes."
Gamboa reached out the Cheslik for clarity about his comment and received a response on Friday afternoon.
Cheslik said from December 2023 through October 2025 the county received marijuana tax distributions totaling about $1.1 million. In December last year, the Department of Revenue sent the county a small amount of interest, about $1,100 that had accrued before the county marijuana tax was ruled as unconstitutional last summer.
In total, Cass County has received $1,159,184.03 from the Department of Revenue for the marijuana tax, according the Cheslik.
"That leaves $268,175.32 of marijuana tax that I anticipate will be requested in the future by DOR," he wrote in an email. "That is what I was referring to."
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