So, we saw a little blurb in the rag that told us what the expected amount of money from pot taxes is expected to be:
The most recent revenue forecast released Wednesday by the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council shows that the industry is expected to bring in more than $694 million in state revenue through the middle of 2019. A previous forecast in September had that projection at about $636 million.
The latest report shows that nearly $43 million from a variety of marijuana-related taxes — including excise, sales and business taxes — is expected to be collected through the middle of next year.
About $237 million is expected for the next two-year budget that ends mid-2017, and $415 million more is expected for the 2017-19 budget biennium.Really? On September 4, 2014, they wrote the following:
The Columbian editorially supported the passage of I-502 in 2012, arguing that the United States' prohibition on the drug has been a long-term waste of time, money and law-enforcement resources. Those arguments still hold sway, but local jurisdictions are perfectly within their rights to prevent marijuana-related businesses. About 56 percent of Washington voters agreed with legalization, but in Clark County 50.3 percent of voters cast ballots against I-502. That is a slim margin, but it lends weight to officials' decisions to place a moratorium on such businesses.But they left out the issue of revenue.
The Columbian endorses Initiative 502 for many reasons, not the least of which is financial. I-502 offers Washingtonians the chance to radically change how we react to marijuana, from wasting $211 million over the past decade enforcing marijuana laws, to creating a revenue stream of more than $500 million annually via a 25 percent excise tax (plus other taxes) on legal marijuana sales.
Now, today, we see that instead of what the lazy C wrote then... and instead of the lies of the I-502 campaign:
The lie concerning pot revenue used by the
I-504 campaign and bought by the democratian,
directly from the pro-pot campaign website.
We get something approaching the truth.
Instead of the lie of $582 million in revenue EVERY YEAR, the state will be getting far less. Hundreds of millions of dollars less. BILLIONS of dollars less.
The rag, of course, has never once mentioned how badly fooled they were on the revenue issue: they'd hate to admit that I was right and not only were they wrong, but they weren't even close.
And Lefty Lou, so enamored of his Madore fetish, has never once thrown a screaming fit about holding the campaign accountable for their lies or, as I advocate, recriminalizing pot until the promised numbers are provided to the state in cash... in fact, I don't believe he's mentioned it at all.
Too busy with his obsessive-compulsive conservative-bashing.
If the campaign to legalize this crap had been telling the truth, we should have seen almost $4 BILLION in revenue.
Instead... we get chump change. And the rag doesn't care since they got their way; lies and a complete lack of accountability notwithstanding.
No comments:
Post a Comment