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One of the most obvious yet nebulous benefits of cannabis legalization is the influx of tax revenue that states are receiving. Each state makes its own individual decisions about the size and nature of its taxes and how much they funnel to specific funds and departments, so until a particular law is written, all that is apparent is that state programs will benefit, but exactly how much remains unknown. But with Colorado, which legalized in 2012 and began legal sales in 2014, no such ambiguity exists. The benefits the state has enjoyed from legalization are quantified and visible, especially when examined through the lens of the state\u2019s public school system.<\/p>\n
From 2014 to July 2018,\u00a0over $5.37 billion<\/a>\u00a0in cannabis sales have occurred in the state of\u00a0Colorado<\/a>. Of this massive sum, the state siphons off a state sales tax of 2.9 percent on medical cannabis, plus a retail marijuana sales tax and an excise tax, both of which started at 10 percent and bumped up to 15 percent in August 2017. The state\u00a0also collects roughly a million dollars<\/a>\u00a0each month in licensing fees. The excise tax is levied on the sale from the cultivator to the next stop in the line, whether that\u2019s a shop or a processor. While funding from the excise tax has risen slowly and now brings in $5 to $6 million in an average month, the retail tax increases almost monthly and brought in over $16 million for the first time this August.<\/p>\n Total all that up, and the state has added a nifty $816 million to its coffers from 2014 to August 2018 from cannabis. What does that buy you these days?<\/p>\n The excise tax and the sales tax go into different buckets. The first $40 million (or 90 percent, whichever is more) from the excise tax\u00a0go toward school construction<\/a>, with the balance going to the state\u2019s public school fund.<\/p>\n The river of cash from the sales tax has a few more branches. Ten percent goes to the local government where the sale occurred. The remaining 90 percent contributes to the public school fund and the state\u2019s general fund, but the greatest amount goes to the Marijuana Tax Cash Fund (MCTF), which is mandated to spend the funds the following year on health care,\u00a0health education<\/a>, cannabis studies, anti-bullying programs, early literacy, dropout prevention and more.<\/p>\n The distribution of funds represents both a statement of values and a moment in time. When Colorado voters went to the polls in 2012, no U.S. state had legalized cannabis, and for many, voting yes meant agreeing to a strange and uncertain world. That cannabis tax revenue is funding uncontroversial programs with wide appeal is no accident \u2014 those that were uncertain about legalization itself could take solace in the idea of more funding for education and healthcare. Other states have taken a similar approach.\u00a0Oregon gives the largest share of its cannabis revenue to education<\/a>, followed by law enforcement and substance abuse treatment. Washington state\u00a0gives the majority<\/a>\u00a0of its revenue to public health projects. California\u2019s top line recipient\u00a0is youth programs<\/a>. Even for those who see harm in legalization, the deployment of revenues makes an easy case that cannabis legalization is a net positive.<\/p>\n To quote one person in Deer Trail<\/a>, a town of 650 people south of Denver that recently received a grant to replace a crumbling school, \u201cI don\u2019t care where the money comes from. If we get a new school, I\u2019m for it.\u201d<\/p>\n The funds that travel from the excise tax to Colorado\u2019s Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) program \u2014 which totaled $40 million in past years, but will be more this year \u2014 have increased that program\u2019s budget by about 10 percent,\u00a0according to the Denver Post<\/a>. That\u2019s enough to give cannabis legalization partial credit for the 35 school construction projects approved in June by state officials. These include new schools, replacement schools and major renovations of elementary and high schools across the state.<\/p>\n Despite that level of specificity, it\u2019s hard to go much further in linking cannabis revenue to specific projects. For instance, we know that in 2017, $16.5 million in cannabis retail tax revenue\u00a0went to affordable housing and local construction projects<\/a>, but given that this is only a fraction of a much larger construction budget, it is difficult to credit cannabis tax revenue with specific new buildings. Are there affordable housing projects that exist today that wouldn\u2019t without legalization? Undoubtedly. But it\u2019s near-impossible to know which ones. The same goes for the benefits derived from millions spent on public safety, substance abuse prevention, law enforcement and much more.<\/p>\n There are two exceptions to this general concept: an anti-bullying initiative and Colorado\u2019s school health professional grant program. These programs, which combat school bullying and provide grants to bring nurses and other care workers to schools, existed in the law but not in reality until cannabis revenue provided a funding stream. Though these programs account for only a small fraction of the state\u2019s cannabis revenue, they are the clearest examples of programs that would not exist without legalization.<\/p>\n Polls of Coloradans<\/a>\u00a0show no regrets over legalization. While the advantages for cannabis users are obvious enough, there are also clear pluses for school-age children and their parents, law enforcement, people who benefit from affordable housing and anyone concerned with public health and safety. Cannabis isn\u2019t for everyone, but the benefits of legalization are.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/b>\u00a0do you know where the cannabis tax money in your state goes?<\/p>\n Originally published in Issue 34 of Cannabis Now.\u00a0LEARN MORE<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n The post Thank You For Toking: How Cannabis Taxes Help Colorado\u2019s Schools<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
One of the most obvious yet nebulous benefits of cannabis legalization is the influx of tax revenue that states are receiving. Each state makes its own individual decisions about the size and nature of its taxes and how much they funnel to specific funds and departments, so until a particularContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":32581,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,2355,21,170,728,85,6599,687,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32580"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32580"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32582,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32580\/revisions\/32582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Cannabis-Dispensay.jpg\")
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\nRead More: Thank You For Toking: How Cannabis Taxes Help Colorado\u2019s Schools<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"