Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Marijuana tax take nearly double expected in Colorado

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 126 posts

Re: Marijuana tax take nearly double expected in Colorado

#31

Post by chipgap98 »

Phlarp wrote: post #23
mulletbum wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't there be an aspect of "what is right?" Just because taxes are more or less, revenues increase or decrease, we were putting a huge financial burden and physical burden on a drug that is no worse than alcohol. I think that is the top consideration, what is right, not which way is more financially helpful. (Not trying to be argumentative here, sorry if it sounds that way. It feels like this point is heavily mi…

Alcohol is heavily taxed, and as any liquor store owner will tell you, it's taxed at every possible opportunity: production, distribution and end user sales. We should be striving to bring overall tax rates for tobacco and marijuana up to match alcohol.

Marijuana has an incredibly high tax in Colorado. IRC its like 25%

Re: Marijuana tax take nearly double expected in Colorado

#32

Post by dublinben »

Phlarp wrote: post #23
mulletbum wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't there be an aspect of "what is right?" Just because taxes are more or less, revenues increase or decrease, we were putting a huge financial burden and physical burden on a drug that is no worse than alcohol. I think that is the top consideration, what is right, not which way is more financially helpful. (Not trying to be argumentative here, sorry if it sounds that way. It feels like this point is heavily mi…

Alcohol is heavily taxed, and as any liquor store owner will tell you, it's taxed at every possible opportunity: production, distribution and end user sales. We should be striving to bring overall tax rates for tobacco and marijuana up to match alcohol.

Why? Alcohol is much more harmful than cannabis. It should be taxed at a higher rate.

Re: Marijuana tax take nearly double expected in Colorado

#33

Post by sparkystacey »

mulletbum wrote: post #13
cryoshon wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are critical parameters that we're completely blind to. I'm pro-legalization myself, because I think the data will ultimately support it as being the best option, but we need to check that hypothesis with reality.

Shouldn't there be an aspect of "what is right?" Just because taxes are more or less, revenues increase or decrease, we were putting a huge financial burden and physical burden on a drug that is no worse than alcohol. I think that is the top consideration, what is right, not which way is more financially helpful. (Not trying to be argumentative here, sorry if it sounds that way. It feels like this point is heavily mi…

I'd argue alcohol is way worse than weed. I like my whiskey, but its one of the leading causes of deaths for anything from car accidents to cirrhosis.

I for one would love to see a comprehensive study on the cohesive "value" of both drugs in society and alter taxation accordingly. Alcohol has to cost the most for highway patrol and other social services. Decriminalizing marijuana has to have a substantial savings. Taxation is fair - sin taxes are completely optional and the state needs money. It sounds like the weed tax is too high and the alcohol tax is too low.

Re: Marijuana tax take nearly double expected in Colorado

#34

Post by AaronFriel »

This is good news and bad news. The funding for schools will be a boon to education in the state, and that's certainly not bad. However, I expect will almost certainly lead to decreased education funding from other revenue sources, and ultimately place education footing on less solid ground for years to come.

It was brilliant PR move to earmark the tax revenue for education, there's no doubt about that. It's very hard to argue with such things, and many other states have opted to dedicate certain "sin taxes" to select public works. For example, earmarking some funds for veterans affairs out of state lottery tickets as my state (Iowa) does, or education as many more states do.

On the surface, this seems like a brilliant way to justify revenue collection for what many citizens would consider unseemly or undignified. It is an effective sales pitch to say to a voter, "You may disagree with marijuana legalization, but it will bring in $50 million dollars to state schools."

The problem is that budgets will adjust to incorporate this earmark for future years. That is, education budgets are likely to reflect this revenue for future years. That's precisely what has happened in so many states where state lottery revenues have been earmarked for education and other noble causes. John Oliver's Last Week Tonight had an excellent take on a similar topic: the "sin tax" of state lottery tickets. See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PK-netuhHA

It is wonderful that marijuana taxes are going to a good cause. It is dangerous to make education funding dependent on a volatile tax source, and the evidence suggests that is exactly what will happen.

Re: Marijuana tax take nearly double expected in Colorado

#35

Post by armenarmen »

ohitsdom wrote: post #16
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #8

Chicago and Detroit should take note. Allow drugs and tax the hell out that sh .

If you tax it too much, I'd imagine that'd increase viability for a black market.

Legally distributed drugs can and are still competitive with black market equivalents because legal vendors don't need to build stolen shipments, bribes, and gang war into their pricing.

Re: Marijuana tax take nearly double expected in Colorado

#36

Post by sparkystacey »

Phlarp wrote: post #23
mulletbum wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't there be an aspect of "what is right?" Just because taxes are more or less, revenues increase or decrease, we were putting a huge financial burden and physical burden on a drug that is no worse than alcohol. I think that is the top consideration, what is right, not which way is more financially helpful. (Not trying to be argumentative here, sorry if it sounds that way. It feels like this point is heavily mi…

Alcohol is heavily taxed, and as any liquor store owner will tell you, it's taxed at every possible opportunity: production, distribution and end user sales. We should be striving to bring overall tax rates for tobacco and marijuana up to match alcohol.

Is it? The numbers earlier suggested Colorado only brought in half the tax for alcohol it did for weed. My bet is alcohol costs the state far more in police and social services than weed does. Weed smokers don't usually get in car wrecks or end up in fights that lead them to the ER.

Re: Marijuana tax take nearly double expected in Colorado

#37

Post by xienze »

chimeracoder wrote: post #27
xienze wrote: post #26

The bad news is that this amount of revenue will become the new normal, i.e., future budgets will always assume this amount of revenue or more. I think the novelty factor wearing off and other states legalizing marijuana will put a dent in this number in the future. So hopefully the government won't go too nuts assuming hockey stick growth.

> The bad news is that this amount of revenue will become the new normal, i.e., future budgets will always assume this amount of revenue or more. That's good news, not bad news (for legalization advocates). It becomes the new normal, which means that if anybody wants to reverse course, the burden is on them to find alternative sources for $50-100MM in tax revenue. And a major chunk of the tax revenue is explicitly ea…

> It becomes the new normal, which means that if anybody wants to reverse course, the burden is on them to find alternative sources for $50-100MM in tax revenue.

That "alternative source" is invariably tax increases. Politicians aren't terribly clever about these sorts of things.

> And a major chunk of the tax revenue is explicitly earmarked for public education

That's not at all an iron-clad guarantee of how the money is spent, you may want to look up e.g., the North Carolina Education Lottery.

Re: Marijuana tax take nearly double expected in Colorado

#38

Post by guelo »

xienze wrote: post #26

The bad news is that this amount of revenue will become the new normal, i.e., future budgets will always assume this amount of revenue or more. I think the novelty factor wearing off and other states legalizing marijuana will put a dent in this number in the future. So hopefully the government won't go too nuts assuming hockey stick growth.

Colorado collects $11 billion in taxes so $75 million is just a drop in the bucket and doesn't make much of a difference.

Re: Marijuana tax take nearly double expected in Colorado

#39

Post by adventured »

xienze wrote: post #26

The bad news is that this amount of revenue will become the new normal, i.e., future budgets will always assume this amount of revenue or more. I think the novelty factor wearing off and other states legalizing marijuana will put a dent in this number in the future. So hopefully the government won't go too nuts assuming hockey stick growth.

The number will grow beyond the $70 million, likely by quite a bit given how early it is.

There's no chance other states will put a dent in the $70m figure unless you're calculating Colorado losing population. The majority of tax revenue is coming from counties other than Denver and Boulder. Pot tourists are a small fraction of the base. Texas legalizing pot isn't going to slam the tax revenue for eg Summit Colorado.

Re: Marijuana tax take nearly double expected in Colorado

#40

Post by rconti »

Phlarp wrote: post #23
mulletbum wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't there be an aspect of "what is right?" Just because taxes are more or less, revenues increase or decrease, we were putting a huge financial burden and physical burden on a drug that is no worse than alcohol. I think that is the top consideration, what is right, not which way is more financially helpful. (Not trying to be argumentative here, sorry if it sounds that way. It feels like this point is heavily mi…

Alcohol is heavily taxed, and as any liquor store owner will tell you, it's taxed at every possible opportunity: production, distribution and end user sales. We should be striving to bring overall tax rates for tobacco and marijuana up to match alcohol.

The difference is, because of its prohibition, marijuana has a thriving black market. They need to stamp out the black market before they can get taxation to that level.
Post reply on HN