Marijuana on the Ballot

Chris EdwardsRecreational marijuana is now legal in Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Washington State, and the District of Columbia.Four other states —Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota—have measures on the ballot in November to legalize recreational sales. Polls summarized by Ballotpedia show thatProposition 207 in Arizona,Initiative 190 in Montana,Question 1 in New Jersey, andAmendment A in South Dakota are all likely to pass.One incentive for states to legalize marijuana is to raise tax revenues. Most of the states with legal recreational markets impose excise taxes on the retail price, which range from 10 percent to 37 percent. Numerous states impose taxes on growers, usually in addition to retail taxes. California, for example, imposes a 15 percent tax on the retail sales price plus taxes on growers based on plant weight. Illinois taxes marijuana based on THC content. Some states impose their regular retail sales taxes on top of these product ‐​specific taxes.Colorado has the longest experience with a legal recreational marijuana market. It imposes a 15 percent retail tax and a 15 percent wholesale tax on the product. In 2019, the state raised $263 million, which was 2.1 percent of the state ’s general fund revenues. Total general fund revenues for the 50 states in 2020 were $913 billion, so if all states legalize recreational marijuana and raise relatively the same ...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 27, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Chris Edwards Source Type: blogs