Pubdate: Fri, 06 Feb 2015
Source: Bulletin, The (Bend, OR)
Copyright: 2015 Western Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.bendbulletin.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/62

POT LAW NEEDS TO BE CHANGED

Oregonians knew even before voters here approved Measure 91, which 
legalizes the growth, sale and use of recreational marijuana, that 
state legislators were likely to make changes.

Lawmakers have at least 14 marijuana bills to consider. They cover 
the legal weed gamut, everything from barring sales near schools to 
studying marijuana taxes. There's another ordering courts that are 
asked to set aside convictions to treat pre-July 2013 marijuana 
offenses as if they had occurred after legalization.

It will take the Legislature time to work through all the proposals, 
clearly, but at least one bill already makes good sense.

That's Senate Bill 542, introduced at the behest of the League of 
Oregon Cities. It makes two particularly important changes to Measure 91.

It would give cities and counties the right to tax marijuana for 
themselves. As 91 was written, only the state has the power to tax 
weed, and local governments were specifically barred from doing so. 
In hope of being given a grandfathered taxing power once the measure 
was adopted, at least 70 cities, including several in Central Oregon 
but not Bend, and three counties in the state passed taxing 
legislation last fall.

There's good reason for wanting to impose a tax. Oregon's cities and 
counties rely heavily on property taxes to support their general-fund 
operations, and they are constitutionally prohibited from asking 
voters for more money except under limited conditions.

That means they, like the state, are particularly vulnerable in 
economic downturns. Being able to tax marijuana might not make them 
rich, but it would give them the opportunity to pick up a bit of 
badly needed extra revenue.

Too, SB 542 would allow cities and counties to prohibit the sales of 
recreational marijuana. That's no small matter in a state where 
voters in 22 of 36 counties rejected the pot legalization measure in November.

Clearly, rural Oregon was against legalization - Deschutes was the 
only county east of the Cascades in which it passed - and counties 
and communities should be allowed to ban pot shops, if they don't want them.

SB 542 is a good place to start a serious look at tweaking Measure 
91. It should be approved.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom