Cannabis in Colorado investigation: Where is the marijuana tax money?
Colorado voters are deciding, for a third time, if the state tax money from marijuana sales should be spent on school construction.
Another vote is happening because state revenue in the past fiscal year exceeded the amount state economists forecast. Instead of $12.08 billion, it came in at $12.35 billion, off by $270 million. According to the state budget committee, in this rare case, the Taxpayers Bill of Rights requires voters to decide if they want money from the state’s newest tax, marijuana, refunded.
Tim Hoover, with the left-leaning Colorado Fiscal Institute says it’s important to point out to voters that TABOR is unfairly targeting marijuana tax money. Pot tax revenue for the past fiscal year, $66.1 million was lower than the $67 million the state predicted.
“They need to understand that the pot tax revenue didn’t exceed any limit, it actually came in lower than the estimate. It is just the victim of, frankly, a TABOR drive by,” said Hoover.
John Caldera, President of the conservative think tank the Independence Institute, says there’s nothing wrong with going to the voters again.
“It’s the simplest, most polite, most honest thing to do,” said Caldera. “If you’re going to treat the citizens like the people in power, which they are supposed to be, you merely ask them, that’s all this (the marijuana vote) is.”
KRDO NewsChannel 13 found that when it comes to the $66.1 million dollars in pot taxes the voters may want refunded, it’s not all there. State records show, $27 million has already been spent on school construction, under what’s called the BEST program. Other money went toward law enforcement and pot education — efforts to keep kids off drugs.
In case voters want the money refunded, the state replaced the pot taxes with $30 million from the general fund — tax dollars we all pay. “Some of our general fund money that should be going to prisons and roads and things your tax dollars pay for,” explains State Senator Pat Steadman, who sits on the Joint Budget Committee. “They’re (the funds) being diverted to take care of this little snafu with the marijuana taxes.”
We asked about the $30 million dollar “snafu,” which TABOR supporters have told KRDO NewsChannel 13 is an example of the state not correctly managing our tax money. They point out that TABOR has been in the Colorado Constitution for more than two decades and lawmakers should’ve planned better.
Steadman said state lawmakers couldn’t hold onto the marijuana money, because Amendment 64 required them to spend it on school construction, as it came in. He also said Colorado’s revenue estimate, which was off by around 1% and is forcing another vote, is the result of our state’s recovery from the recession.
“That’s where our economists made a mistake,” said Steadman, “They were a little low because our economy came roaring back faster than expected.”
If voters decide they want a refund, taxpayers will get anywhere from $6 to $32, depending on their income.
