Another month, another massive haul in tax revenue for Colorado marijuana sales.
For the 1oth month in a row, cannabis sales have exceeded $100 million in the first state in the nation to sell legal recreational cannabis.
Sales tax revenue generated in Colorado for the month was just shy of $23 million, according to the state’s Department of Revenue.
The state may soon be getting even more money from the legalized, regulated industry. There is a bill advancing in the legislature that would raise the recreational marijuana special sales tax from 10 percent to maximum 15 percent.
According to the Denver Post:
The state’s cannabis consumers pay the standard 2.9 percent state sales tax plus a special 10 percent marijuana sales tax. A 15 percent excise tax applied on wholesale transfers is baked into the cost of sale.
Under the legislative proposal, the increase to the 15 percent special sales tax rate is paired with the elimination of the 2.9 percent regular sales tax. So the move amounts to a 2.1 percentage-point tax hike for consumers. Each percentage point increase in marijuana taxes equates to about a $10 million increase in tax revenue for the state, said Chris Stiffler, an economist at the Colorado Fiscal Institute.
In January, Gov. John Hickenlooper said he was in favor of the tax hike.
Dispensaries throughout Colorado sold $1.3 billion worth of medical and recreational marijuana in 2016. That is up from $996.2 million in 2015 and $699.2 million in 2014.
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