A Colorado measure to impose sales and
excise taxes of 25 percent on newly
legalized recreational marijuana and
earmark the first $40 million in revenue for
public schools was approved by voters on
Tuesday, Governor John Hickenlooper said.
The move showed a willingness on the part of
Colorado voters to tax marijuana for the
public benefit even as they roundly defeated a
broader tax measure that would have
increased state income taxes to raise $1 billion
for schools.
Colorado and Washington last year became the
first U.S. states to legalize marijuana for
recreational purposes. But Colorado, whose
constitution requires a statewide vote to
approve tax increases, left it to voters to
decide how to tax the newly legal drug.
“We are grateful voters approved funding that
will allow for a strong regulatory environment,
just like liquor is regulated,” Hickenlooper said
as returns showed 65 percent of voters in
favor of the tax and 35 percent against with
about a quarter of votes counted.
“We will do everything in our power to make
sure kids don’t smoke pot and that we don’t
have people driving who are high. This ballot
measure gives Colorado the ability to regulate
marijuana properly,” the Democratic governor
said in a statement.
Under the marijuana tax proposal, a combined
15 percent excise and 10 percent sales tax
would be imposed on recreational pot sales,
with the first $40 million raised to fund school
construction projects.
In Denver, a local ballot measure that would
tack an additional 3.5 percent city sales tax on
pot shops also appeared headed for passage,
by a margin of 69 to 31 percent with roughly a
third of votes counted.
Even as many proponents of legalizing
recreational marijuana supported taxing the
drug, some within the pot legalization
community opposed the tax.
Rachel Gillette, president of Colorado’s chapter
of the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws, said before the vote that her
organization was not against taxing cannabis
sales, but that the state was going too far.
“This is not keeping with the promise to tax
marijuana like alcohol,” Gillette said. “It’s more
like regulating the sale of plutonium than
alcohol. It looks like a law-enforcement money
grab.”
BROADER TAS MEASURE FAILS
Backers of a statewide proposal that would
have increased the state income tax to raise
nearly $1 billion annually for public schools
conceded defeat on Tuesday, as returns
showed it losing 66 percent to 34 percent with
about 25 percent of votes counted.
“Tonight, we know that goal isn’t happening as
soon as we’d like. But it will happen,” said
state Senator Mike Johnston, a Democrat from
Denver.
The school funding constitutional amendment
would have scrapped the state’s current 4.63
percent flat income tax rate tied to federal
adjusted gross income tax, and replaced it with
a two-tiered income tax increase.
Under the proposal, taxpayers who made less
than $75,000 would have paid a 5 percent rate
and taxpayers who made over $75,000 would
have faced a 5.9 percent rate.
Proponents of the measure say Colorado has
for years underfunded public education, and
sought voter approval to put school funding on
a surer financial footing.
Opponents argued that Colorado requires local
school districts to allocate tax revenues, so
there is no guarantee on how the money will
be spent at the local level, which could be
used on teacher salaries or to backfill the
state’s underfunded public employees
retirement fund.
Backers of the tax raised more than $10
million for their campaign, bombarding
television and radio airwaves with ads, touting
the need for money to fund full-day
kindergarten, and to restore music, art and
physical education programs.
Among the donors to the pro-tax measure
were Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife
Melinda and New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg, who, combined, donated $2
million to the campaign.
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