Cash strapped states eye pot tax!
DENVER, Colorado (PNN) - March 28, 2013 - Now that voters in Colorado and Washington have legalized recreational marijuana use, dope smokers there can light up without the usual paranoid fear that pig thug cops are at the door.
The taxman is another matter.
Cash starved legislators are seeing dollar signs in dime bags - with talk that a tax on marijuana could pump hundreds of millions or even billions into budgets reeling from the ongoing Depression.
“I’ve seen some estimates in the high tens of millions, as much as $100 million for [Colorado],” said Rep. Jared Polis (Colo.), who’s pushing a federal legalization in Congress. Money like that could make a big difference, he said - including a “substantial dent in needed school improvements, particularly in poorer districts.”
Dale Gieringer, director of Kalifornia National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, estimates that legalizing pot would bring in at least $1.2 billion to his state alone. His study assumes a traditional sales tax plus an additional $50 levy per ounce of marijuana, which runs between $280 and $420.
His study argues that legalization could also generate $12-18 billion in new economic activity for Kalifornia.
Estimates are that a nationwide legalization that taxed marijuana like alcohol and tobacco would mean $6.4 billion in new tax revenue - $4.3 billion for Uncle Sam and $2.1 billion for the states.
However, the federal government could swoop in at any moment and knock down legalization laws in both states because they violate federal marijuana prohibitions.
In the meantime, Washington state lawmakers are considering tweaks to accompany a voter-approved 25% tax on each of the three levels of marijuana production.
