Yesterday was election day in what amounted to one of the most boring election days in recent memory. Colorado, however, actually had a couple of interesting bills on the table.
For starters, the northern counties decided not to secede from the state in an attempt to form a new state that would be known as North Colorado. The secession vote was kind of a non-starter anyways though, since state voters don’t have the authority to create new U.S. states at will.
Where things really got interesting is in the marijuana vote.
Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of Colorado and Washington’s historic votes to legalize marijuana for adults for recreational use. The 2012 vote gave Colorado one year to decide how to regulate the substance—whether to implement a sales tax at at the retail level, and what to do with all the new revenue.
Voters decided to apply a fairly steep tax on legal pot, and that the money will be used to pay for new school construction. The taxes include a 10% state tax that retailers must pay as a premium beyond the 2.9% standard state tax, and there’s also a 15% tax retailers have to pay to suppliers. All in, it’s a nearly 28% tax imposed on pot.
Which seems steep, but the money will go to good use: The first $40 million in revenue will go to new school construction according to BuzzFeed, and remaining revenue will go to implementing marijuana regulation itself. The state estimates that $3.5 million will be needed to upgrade its computer systems to handle the pot regulation infrastructure. But after that, I the possibilities for new revenue are sky high.
And this isn’t even mentioning the savings in law enforcement spending Colorado will realize by not arresting and prosecuting pot crimes.
All in all it’s kind of a dream scenario for progressives: Decriminalization of a fairly harmless substance, a tax that everyone agrees on for the common good, and then spending that money on education. Quite a trifecta. Well done, Colorado. Oh, and good on you for staying in the Union.
SEE ALSO: Check Out Leafly, The Yelp Of Marijuana