A pro-pot jingle in Colorado last year said, Jobs for our people/Money for schools/Who could ask for more?” The Associated Press reprots that nearly a year after Colorado legalized recreational weed, voters get the chance to decide exactly how much more — in taxes. On Tuesday, voters decide on a 15 percen pot excise tax to pay for school construction, plus an extra sales tax of 10 percent to fund marijuana enforcement.
Some pot activists are campaigning against the taxes, arguing that marijuana should be taxed like beer, which has a tax rate of 8 cents a gallon. “Our alcohol system is regulated just fine with the taxes they have, so we don’t see any need for this huge grab for cash from marijuana,” said Miguel Lopez of the small opposition campaign to Colorado’s pot tax measure. While polls suggest the tax is going to pass — even in this state where voters frequently reject new taxes — it is very much an open question how much the state is going to reap. A projection prepared for voters by state fiscal analysts predicted the taxes would bring in $70 million a year.