Katelyn Baker
Well-Known Member
City of Corvallis officials have been kicking around a variety of different ideas to try to raise more revenue for city services; it's all part of the work that a city task force has been tackling in its attempts to build a sustainable city budget.
The list of potential "revenue enhancements," as government officials like to call them, includes some items about which we are skeptical, including a local income tax or a sales tax. Why we would want to do anything to increase the cost of living in Corvallis while, at the same time, continuing to gnash our teeth about how expensive it is to live in Corvallis escapes us.
But there is a revenue enhancement that we can endorse with enthusiasm, and we suggest that the City Council move with haste to place it on the November ballot: a 3 percent local tax on the sale of recreational marijuana.
The statewide ballot measure that legalized recreational pot in Oregon was fairly specific about where tax revenue from sales would be spent, but it does allow an option for local governments to levy a tax of up to 3 percent.
It's not clear how much money Corvallis would raise from a 3 percent pot tax, but one thing has become apparent since recreational marijuana sales became legal: It's more money than officials originally thought.
For example, officials say that in January and February, the state collected a total of $6.8 million in taxes from the sales of recreational pot. State economists earlier had estimated that recreational pot sales might bring in some $2 million to $3 million - each year. (To be fair, the economists were working in uncharted territory.)
But the implications here - that the amount of potential tax money from pot sales might be more than 10 times what economists originally expected - have been sufficient to garner renewed interest from local governments, including Corvallis.
Now, an overly large tax burden on marijuana runs the risk that of driving recreational marijuana users to the black market, but there's isn't any evidence that's happening yet. And the total tax that Oregon has slapped on recreational pot sales is less than in other states that have legalized recreational pot, such as Oregon and Washington. (In fact, the state rate in Oregon is scheduled to eventually drop from 25 percent to 17 percent.)
It's worth noting that medical marijuana remains untaxed, so those users would not be burdened by a tax on recreational pot.
Taxing recreational marijuana won't by itself solve all of the city's fiscal woes, unless the market in Corvallis is much bigger than we thought. But some extra change flowing into the city's coffers from this source won't hurt anyone. And who knows? It might add up to something more substantial than just some extra change.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Editorial: City Should Tax Recreational Marijuana
Author: Anibal Ortiz
Contact: 541-753-2641
Photo Credit: None found
Website: Gazette-Times
The list of potential "revenue enhancements," as government officials like to call them, includes some items about which we are skeptical, including a local income tax or a sales tax. Why we would want to do anything to increase the cost of living in Corvallis while, at the same time, continuing to gnash our teeth about how expensive it is to live in Corvallis escapes us.
But there is a revenue enhancement that we can endorse with enthusiasm, and we suggest that the City Council move with haste to place it on the November ballot: a 3 percent local tax on the sale of recreational marijuana.
The statewide ballot measure that legalized recreational pot in Oregon was fairly specific about where tax revenue from sales would be spent, but it does allow an option for local governments to levy a tax of up to 3 percent.
It's not clear how much money Corvallis would raise from a 3 percent pot tax, but one thing has become apparent since recreational marijuana sales became legal: It's more money than officials originally thought.
For example, officials say that in January and February, the state collected a total of $6.8 million in taxes from the sales of recreational pot. State economists earlier had estimated that recreational pot sales might bring in some $2 million to $3 million - each year. (To be fair, the economists were working in uncharted territory.)
But the implications here - that the amount of potential tax money from pot sales might be more than 10 times what economists originally expected - have been sufficient to garner renewed interest from local governments, including Corvallis.
Now, an overly large tax burden on marijuana runs the risk that of driving recreational marijuana users to the black market, but there's isn't any evidence that's happening yet. And the total tax that Oregon has slapped on recreational pot sales is less than in other states that have legalized recreational pot, such as Oregon and Washington. (In fact, the state rate in Oregon is scheduled to eventually drop from 25 percent to 17 percent.)
It's worth noting that medical marijuana remains untaxed, so those users would not be burdened by a tax on recreational pot.
Taxing recreational marijuana won't by itself solve all of the city's fiscal woes, unless the market in Corvallis is much bigger than we thought. But some extra change flowing into the city's coffers from this source won't hurt anyone. And who knows? It might add up to something more substantial than just some extra change.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Editorial: City Should Tax Recreational Marijuana
Author: Anibal Ortiz
Contact: 541-753-2641
Photo Credit: None found
Website: Gazette-Times
