Colorado Marijuana Legalization Would Add $60 Million A Year

[h=2]Colorado Marijuana Legalization Would Add $60 Million A Year[/h]
(From TokeofTheTown)


New Report Documents Fiscal Impact of Amendment 64, the Initiative to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol


Nearly $60 Million Saved and Generated for Colorado in First Year; Up to $120 Million in New Revenue and Savings Projected after 2017


A new report released Thursday by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy (CCLP) documents that Amendment 64, the Initiative to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, would provide the state savings and tax revenue of nearly $60 million in its first year. According to the report, the state is conservatively projected to save and earn up to $120 million annually after 2017.


Amendment 64 proposes a system to regulate and tax marijuana in Colorado similarly to alcohol. In addition to state and local sales taxes, the initiative directs the General Assembly to enact an excise tax of up to 15 percent on wholesale sales of non-medical marijuana.


This limit can be increased after 2017. The general state and local coffers will receive all but $80 million of that revenue. The other $40 million is earmarked to a Capital School Construction Fund.


"Amendment 64, based on these estimates, would generate $24 million in state revenue for the Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) program," said economist Christopher Stiffler of the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. "Leveraged with local dollars, that investment could mean over 350 new jobs, the majority of which will be in the construction industry."


"This significant report highlights the burdensome cost of maintaining marijuana prohibition in Colorado and the new revenue that could be generated for school construction and other critical services," said Art Way, senior policy manager, Drug Policy Alliance. "In addition to keeping countless marijuana possession offenders out of the criminal justice system, Amendment 64, as demonstrated in this report, allows the voters to support fiscal prudence, robust regulation and sensible reform."


"This report confirms that by regulating marijuana like alcohol we can generate significant new revenue and savings for our state and localities, and create much-needed jobs," said Betty Aldworth, advocacy director of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, which is supporting Amendment 64. "Not only will Amendment 64 result in immediate savings; it will quickly grow into a major revenue stream for Colorado."


Key findings of the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute report


Amendment 64 will generate:


• $12 million in instant savings for the year following legalization because of reduced criminal costs. As courts and prisons adapt to fewer and fewer violators, annual savings (compared to a pre-legalization year's budget) will rise toward the long run savings level of $40 million


• $24 million new tax revenue generated from excise taxes on the wholesaler (all of which is promised to the Colorado Public School Capital Construction Assistance Fund)


• $8.7 million in new state sales tax revenue


• $14.5 million in new local sales tax revenue


• 372 new jobs (217 of which are construction) from school construction projects on behalf of the Building Excellent Schools Today Program


• TOTAL $60 million total savings/additional revenue for Colorado's Budget with a potential for this number to double after 2017.

One of the big reasons wife and I moved here... Colorado is one of the few states moving forward and a huge step is legalyzing mary!

I wonder how scared the dispensary owners and for-profit growers within the MMJ industry are in Colorado because of this upcoming bill. You know they know that with this passing it's going to lower the price of MMJ in Colorado.

The officials are saying that with this passing Colorado will become a major supplier nationwide to the other states where it's still illegal.

I hope this passes. It's past time to set the stage for legalization to spread.

There's a verse in the bible that I think is prophetical concerning Cannabis.

From the original King James version that hasn't been doctored>

Ezekiel 34:29-

And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.

We all know how many products that can be made from the most renown plant and the many food products that can be made from it. Cannabis has to be the most popular plant in the world. Also, how most all of government officials and law enforcement that have looked down upon the many people who use and possess it as heathens.

I believe that verse is talking about Cannabis. Whether this passes in November or not, the pressure for it's legalization will happen because too many people are sick of the oppression against the many people that use it. It is a renown plant.

It's just sad about the greed of the dealers and MMJ businesses who sell it for astronomical prices. I hope when it passes an ounce drops down to low double digit prices instead of the current triple digit prices.

That would be nice, seeing an ounce of primo grade A herb going for $50.00

Because when it does go legal, it's going to bring more growers into it. People who were scared to grow it before will then start growing it in mass numbers. The dispensaries and for-profit warehouse MMJ growers will end up fading away because the high dollar profits just won't be there anymore.

i was thinking the other day that cannabis keeps making its presence known almost like god or nature itself insists that we should discover it over the verdant hill and build our little homes from it.. the more that we murder it down violently with flame throwers - the more that it cries out that it is good...

legalizing will help far more than $60000000.00/yr...

If our government was smart they would legalize marijuana for those on probation and parole so the whole designer drug epidemic will disappear I'm tired of hearing about people dying and giong to the hopital for liver failure ane everything else that shit does to you but nobody seems to bring up this point

the idea that it is a safe alternative substance is always in my mind, but try to talk some old time flag waving logger into letting their nephews grow up to be pot heads on purpose.. it is science vs tradition.. sure eating less bacon is good, but does the bible say that we have to?


https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/408356_480608401960176_905037453_n.jpg

I haven't seen any downside to marijuana legalization. It seems it will only increase revenue in the state. I don't understand why we haven't considered it sooner as our nation needs the money.