Marijuana sales tax increase proposed to fund new Pueblo jail

Pueblo County voters could decide to approve two different sales tax increases to help fund a new jail facility.

Pueblo County commissioner Garrison Ortiz proposed the two measures. The first is measure 1A which would increase the sales tax by about half a percent. The second is called 1B which would increase the sales tax on recreational marijuana to 6 percent.

Ortiz understands the opposition to the measures.

“This isn’t something that we want to do or isn’t particularly fun,” he said. But Ortiz says the current condition of the Pueblo detention center is not good.

“It’s laid out to house low risk offenders it is not built to house the offenders we currently have in there,” he said.

The new facility would be built outside of the downtown area where the current one is now. It’s estimated to cost between $130 and $140 million. Pueblo has tried similar measures in the past that failed. Ortiz says something still needs to be done.

“If it doesn’t pass, and we didn’t run anything else, we are back where we’ve been year after year where we essentially have nothing.”

However, recreational shops aren’t happy with the measure 1B. Daniel Cwik, the general manager of Sticky Icky’s in Pueblo, says it’s unfair for the county to targeting dispensary businesses like theirs.

“For us to be treated unfairly and not treated like a normal business when we pay our taxes, and apparently they still just want to take, take, take,” Cwik says. “I don’t agree with it at all.”

He says it’s possible his shop would have to increase their prices or get lower quality cannabis if the measure is passed.

The two measures are not officially on the ballot just yet. But if they are and both pass, what would happen to the current jail?

Ortiz says the tower would be brought down and the rest would be converted into a treatment center for the community.