Marijuana Proposal And Expected Tax Revenue

rwerewerd
rwerewerd

The proposal to legalize the recreational marijuana in Michigan could mean more than $130 million per year for state coffers. Josh Hovey with the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol tells WSJM News the proposal specifies how that tax money would be spent.

“It directs the revenue to be 35% to roads, 35% to public schools, and then 30% divided to 15% each to counties and municipalities where there are marijuana businesses located,” Hovey said.

Hovey says after about five years, the legalized marijuana would mean a half billion dollars for the state.

“While we’re not by any means going to claim that legalizing marijuana will solve all of Michigan’s road funding or school funding problems, we do believe that this is a significant benefit for the state, and is far more than the zero dollars we’re collecting for legalized marijuana right now,” Hovey said.

Hovey tells us the group has not made a study of how much money could be saved by law enforcement and the courts if they didn’t have to process marijuana cases, but it stands to reason it would make a difference. Meanwhile, a group opposed to the ballot proposal, Healthy and Productive Michigan, points out that $100 million per year is still less than 1% of the state budget.