{"id":75241,"date":"2024-05-13T05:33:34","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T13:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/05\/13\/alaska-house-passes-marijuana-tax-reform-bill\/"},"modified":"2024-05-13T12:45:50","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T20:45:50","slug":"alaska-house-passes-marijuana-tax-reform-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/05\/13\/alaska-house-passes-marijuana-tax-reform-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska House Passes Marijuana Tax Reform Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

The cannabis levy would be the Alaska\u2019s first-ever statewide sales tax.<\/em><\/p>\n

By James Brooks, Alaska Beacon<\/strong><\/p>\n

A decade after Alaska voters\u00a0legalized recreational marijuana, the Alaska Legislature is advancing the first major change to the law that opened commercial sales here.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Alaska House of Representatives voted to change the state\u2019s $50 per ounce marijuana tax to a 7 percent sales tax.<\/p>\n

If House Bill 119 is accepted by the Senate and Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R), it would impose Alaska\u2019s first statewide sales tax. That pioneering concept troubled some legislators, but the bill still passed the House by a 36-3 vote.<\/p>\n

The tax change was recommended by the state\u2019s recreational marijuana task force, which Dunleavy convened in 2022 to analyze the marijuana industry and determine whether aspects of the industry\u2019s enabling law\u2014passed by voters in 2014\u2014should be changed.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, Alaska joined Oregon as the third and fourth states to legalize recreational marijuana use. Since then, many other states have followed suit, but Alaska\u2019s marijuana tax\u2014levied at the wholesale level\u2014is the highest in the country.<\/p>\n

Members of the marijuana industry\u00a0have asked for tax relief<\/a>, saying that they are unable to successfully compete with black-market marijuana at present rates of taxation.<\/p>\n

In addition, there are signs that the tax structure is counterproductive. The $50 per-ounce tax applies only to regular bud or flower; there are lower taxes for flawed buds or for trim\u2014cut marijuana buds\u2014and producers have shifted toward those lower-taxed products.<\/p>\n

The task force\u2019s original recommendation was a 3 percent sales tax, but bill supporter Rep. Jesse Sumner, R-Wasilla, said he believed that figure was too low and would not get legislative support. He proposed a 10 percent tax that was later lowered to 6 percent. On the House floor, that was raised by amendment to 7 percent.<\/p>\n

Sumner said he believes the higher figure may make the bill more attractive to the state Senate, which must vote on the bill before it can advance to the governor\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n

Ryan Tunseth, president of the Alaska Marijuana Industry Association, a trade group, said he was excited to see the bill pass the House, even with a tax rate higher than preferred by the industry.<\/p>\n

He said he intends to poll marijuana businesses over the weekend to get their impressions, and he hopes that the final version of the bill will also include other task force recommendations, including changes to plant tracking and licensing.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Alaska Beacon.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Alaska Bill To Create Task Force To Study Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Heads To Governor\u2019s Desk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The post Alaska House Passes Marijuana Tax Reform Bill<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Alaska House Passes Marijuana Tax Reform Bill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The cannabis levy would be the Alaska\u2019s first-ever statewide sales tax. By James Brooks, Alaska Beacon A decade after Alaska voters\u00a0legalized recreational marijuana, the Alaska Legislature is advancing the first major change to the law that opened commercial sales here. On Friday, the Alaska House of Representatives voted to changeContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75241"}],"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\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75242,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75241\/revisions\/75242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}