Groups Back Marijuana Sales-Tax Pot to Get State Out of Financial Weeds

Three potential ballot drives focus on the tax revenue available to Michigan lawmakers with the legalization of recreational marijuana. (Photo via Flickr/Creative Commons)

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Financially, Michigan is still in the weeds of the economic recovery with a long to-do list of public infrastructure and other important projects, but no excess cash to fund them.

Is pot the answer?

Possibly, say a handful of groups mulling 2016 ballot proposals to put Michigan on the list of states collecting taxes on the sale of marijuana legalized for recreational purposes. Michigan already has medical marijuana under a 2008 voter-backed initiative, but doesn’t tax it.

Revenue from taxes on legalized pot is a little like found money, according to a group of Republicans who think legalization is sound fiscal policy for Michigan.

“Let’s face it – this is one of the last places, aside from printing money, that we’re going to find more money” for government spending, Matt Marsden, 41 of Clarkston, a spokesman for the Pontiac-based Michigan Cannabis Coalition, told the Detroit Free Press.

The Michigan Cannabis Control and Revenue Act proposal is “not about pot,” but “about the revenue and jobs that are going to be created,” said Marsden, a former legislative staffer for Republican state and congressional lawmakers.

Two other pot-legalization groups are aiming for the November 2016 election with ballot proposals, and the Michigan Cannabis Coalition’s effort is one of two backed by Republicans. Backers of all three efforts cite the increase in tax revenues to help fix some of Michigan’s most persistent and nagging problems.

One Effort Driven by Lack of Medicinal Regulation

Two prominent Oakland County Republican operatives said earlier this year they would promote a 2016 ballot measure legalizing marijuana use if the state failed to implement a system of “regulation and taxation” to reform existing medicinal cannabis laws.

The current law “doesn’t work,” Suzie Mitchell, a Republican political fundraiser from West Bloomfield, told The Detroit News.

“We really want to see how it can be delivered legally and regulated,” she said.

Mitchell and GOP consultant Paul Welday, who together have formed the Michigan Responsibility Council, don’t expect bills taxing dispensaries to make it to the governor’s desk this session.

An alternative, they said, is a possible ballot drive to legalize and tax recreational pot.

Also on Patch:

• Not Everyone Must Get Stoned (But Votes Mean More People Can)
• Lawmaker: Best Way to Control Youth Access to Pot is to Legalize It
• Northville Could Just Say No to Pot Dispensaries

The other possible ballot drive was announced by the Michigan Comprehensive Cannabis Law Reform Initiative Committee earlier this year.

Jeffrey Hank, a Lansing attorney who is also spearheading a local legalization effort in Lansing, told MLive.com his group is considering a ballot proposal that would “give Michigan voters the gold standard for cannabis reform” by incorporating other states’ best practices when crafting laws.

Colorado Expects $100 Million Tax Bonanza

A handful of places – Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia – already have voted for legal pot.

Colorado collected nearly $18 million in first two months of this year from marijuana sales taxes that could generate more than $100 million annually.

With about double Colorado’s population, Michigan could collect far more, Chris Lindsey, a legislative analyst with the Marijuana Policy Project, a pro-marijuana group in Washington, DC, told the Free Press.

The proposal backed by Marsden’s group would leave it to the Legislature to set the amount of the taxes on marijuana, edibles, oils and extracts. “But whatever it comes to – $150 million or $200 million or $400 million – that’s money we don’t have coming into the state of Michigan right now,” he told the Free Press.

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