{"id":25871,"date":"2019-06-23T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-23T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/colorado-treats-marijuana-taxes-like-a-piggy-bank-but-now-top-lawmakers-want-to-limit-spending-to-two-areas\/"},"modified":"2019-06-23T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-23T22:00:00","slug":"colorado-treats-marijuana-taxes-like-a-piggy-bank-but-now-top-lawmakers-want-to-limit-spending-to-two-areas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/colorado-treats-marijuana-taxes-like-a-piggy-bank-but-now-top-lawmakers-want-to-limit-spending-to-two-areas\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado treats marijuana taxes like \u201ca piggy bank.\u201d But now top lawmakers want to limit spending to two areas."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Automated fans and cultivation lights are pictured operating above cannabis plants at RiNo Supply’s cultivation facility near Lafayette on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018. Automation sensors monitor temperature, humidity and light intensity inside the greenhouse as a way of regulating the fans and light output and, according to the cannabis company, help reduce energy-consumption costs. (Photo by Andy Colwell\/ Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/strong>
Andy Colwell | The Colorado Sun<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Colorado lawmakers \u201chear it all the time,\u201d says Sen. Rachel Zenzinger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much suspicion around what we\u2019re doing with marijuana money,\u201d the Arvada Democrat told The Colorado Sun. \u201cThere is this perception that there\u2019s a lot of money and we\u2019re just not spending it on education like we should.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complaints from constituents and policy advocates are aimed at the Marijuana Tax Cash Fund, a depository for about half of the $272 million the state is expected to generate this fiscal year from marijuana-related taxes. The legislature has guidelines for how the money should be spent, but lawmakers can use it for just about anything they want. And in practice, they do, splitting the money among dozens of different programs, across more than a dozen state agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, it just kind of is a piggy bank that folks look to when they want something funded,\u201d said Sen. Dominick Moreno, a Commerce City Democrat who leads the Joint Budget Committee. \u201cIt has become a pool of money that you can just raid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now \u2014 five-plus years and $1 billion in tax collections since recreational marijuana was legalized in Colorado \u2014 top Democratic budget writers say they want to change how pot tax revenue is appropriated, recommending new guardrails for a fund that will total $159 million next budget year. The result: Instead of the 14 preferred uses for marijuana money currently spelled out in state law, state budget writers have settled on just two priorities: education and the opioid crisis.<\/p>\n

Read the full story on The Colorado Sun website.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported news organization dedicated to covering the people, places and policies that matter in Colorado. Read more, sign up for free newsletters and subscribe at ColoradoSun.com.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Automated fans and cultivation lights are pictured operating above cannabis plants at RiNo Supply’s cultivation facility near Lafayette on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018. Automation sensors monitor temperature, humidity and light intensity inside the greenhouse as a way of regulating the fans and light output and, according to the cannabis company, help reduce energy-consumption costs. (Photo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 07:38:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}