Pubdate: Thu, 27 Aug 2015
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2015 Associated Press
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Kristen Wyatt, Associated Press

COLORADO CANNABIS TAX MAY FUND SCHOLARSHIP

DENVER (AP) - A Colorado county may create the world's first public 
college scholarship program funded with marijuana money.

Pueblo County, south of Colorado Springs, is considering a 5 percent 
excise tax on marijuana growers, with half the proceeds designated to 
a scholarship fund that boosters say would be the first of its kind.

County Commissioner Sal Pace, the sponsor of the tax measure, said it 
could produce a couple of million dollars a year. The full commission 
will vote on his proposal next week, and if approved, voters would 
have to approve the excise tax in November before it would take effect.

"What the concept is, is to create the world's first college 
scholarships funded by marijuana growers," Pace said.

Fifty percent of the proposed tax would be divided among Pueblo 
County high school graduates who stay in the county for college.

Pace called his proposed scholarship a natural next step for 
marijuana legalization. The statewide marijuana-legalization measure 
specifically mentioned schools as a beneficiary of new taxes.

"These are the type of promises folks expected when they approved 
[marijuana]," Pace said.

He said it's too soon to say how much each student would receive, 
though he guessed it might be about $500.

The fund would be limited for at least the first year to county 
residents who go to either Pueblo Community College or Colorado State 
University Pueblo, currently about 400 students.

The other half of the proposed tax would be assigned to county 
capital improvements, such as fixing streets around the Colorado 
State Fairgrounds. The county list also includes repairing a school 
playground and bike trails at Pueblo Reservoir.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom