Worcester County is moving ahead with a plan to distribute more than $1 million in cannabis tax revenue, with a late April deadline to notify grant recipients.
The 10-member panel appointed by the commissioners to manage and award grant funds, known as the Local Management Board (LMB), will be finalizing its grant distribution plan for 2026, according to Shylia Tingle, who oversees Worcester’s LMB.
Tingle addressed the Worcester County Commissioners on Tuesday during a public hearing. She explained that the county’s LMB will reopen and update previously received grant applications. They’ll also hold pre-proposal meetings and establish new scoring for applications using standardized criteria. Grant recipients will be notified by April 26.
Originally, counties were told to use tax money for “community-based initiatives.” That proved too broad, so the state’s Office of Social Equity tightened the framework for cannabis fund grantees last year. Changes in state guidance narrowed the program’s focus toward health and social-equity outcomes.
The result was that counties needed not only a more formal set of plans for grant distribution, but stakeholder engagement and public hearings as well. It meant Worcester County’s original cannabis grant program had to be reworked.
The commissioners also decided to task the LMB with running the grant program instead of doing it themselves. Prior to the state changes, the commissioners had directly received 23 grant applications from nonprofits, churches, businesses, and municipalities.