Pubdate: Thu, 27 Feb 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Ingold

Spending of Marijuana Tax Revenue

LAW MAKERS WARY OF WHAT'S IN WALLET

Handed a budget proposal that predicts sky-high marijuana tax 
revenue, Colorado lawmakers say they will move cautiously in deciding 
how much to spend.

Last week, Gov. John Hickenlooper's budget office predicted medical 
and recreational marijuana sales would net Colorado nearly $134 
million in tax and fee revenue in the fiscal year beginning this 
summer. But Rep. Crisanta Duran, the chairwoman of the legislature's 
Joint Budget Committee, said lawmakers aren't convinced of 
Hickenlooper's numbers and want to wait for a different forecast next 
month before estimating how much money they will have to spend.

"We really need some additional details, and we will give it a 
thorough review," said Duran, a Denver Democrat. "My overall concern 
with these totals is that it's pretty early in the process, and we 
don't know if this will be a long-term revenue source for the state."

Another JBC member, Sen. Kent Lambert, echoed Duran's caution, saying 
he would prefer to see figures for how much the state actually 
collected in marijuana taxes in January-the first month for 
recreational sales. Those figures are also expected mid-March.

"We don't know," said Lambert, a Colorado Springs Republican. "We 
need a lot more data before we could have a real estimate of what 
that sustained revenue will be."

Budget committee members are deep into planning next year's spending 
plan, and Lambert said that makes it especially difficult to evaluate 
and incorporate new marijuana tax projections on the fly. "This is a 
moving target," he said. But Hickenlooper's proposal doesn't call for 
the marijuana money to be put to general purpose. Instead, it directs 
all the available money-minus what is constitutionally required to go 
to school construction - into projects to counter the possible 
negative impacts of marijuana legalization. He has proposed putting 
$85 million over the next 18 months into youth marijuana-use 
prevention and into substance-abuse treatment. Duran said she 
supports that idea. "I think the substance-abuse dollars will be 
great to have an increase there," she said.

Those priorities have led to sharply divided opinions elsewhere. 
Mason Tvert, one of the leaders of the marijuana legalization 
campaign in Colorado, blasted the proposal as funding "marijuana 
propaganda." Diane Carlson, a spokeswoman for Smart Colorado, a group 
concerned about the effects of legalization, praised the governor's 
proposal for addressing major issues in "a meaningful way."

One county, Pueblo, has so far reported marijuana tax figures for 
January, when the county says the taxes brought in nearly $56,000. 
More numbers are expected next month, when Denver and state officials 
both will report January figures and the legislature's economists 
give their own projection of what marijuana taxes will bring in for 
the state in the next fiscal year.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom