By Matt Ferner

Arizona stands to generate more than $60 million in marijuana tax revenue annually, if voters decide to legalize and regulate the plant for adult recreational purposes in 2016. 

That’s according to an independent analysis released Monday by Arizona’s nonprofit Grand Canyon Institute. It found the state would rake in about $64 million per year from legal marijuana taxes, including $51 million that would go to K-12 education and all-day kindergarten programs in the state. That’s significantly more than the $40 million in tax revenue for education backers of the ballot initiative projected last month — a sum that opponents of the measure lambasted as unrealistically high and a local newspaper characterized as “a lie” in an August op-ed.

But at least according to the GCI, a research organization focusing on Arizona’s fiscal and tax issues — one that describes itself as “a centrist think-thank led by a bipartisan group of former state lawmakers, economists, community leaders, and academicians” — the advocates were being conservative in their estimates.

“The revenue gains do exceed the $40 million espoused by proponents of the initiative,” GCI’s report reads.

Further, the research group projects that if the ballot measure were to pass, by 2019, once the regulated market was fully established, the state would raise $72 million annually with about $58 million for education alone.

“You can debate whether marijuana should be made legal for adults, but there’s no arguing the fact that this initiative will generate significant revenue for Arizona schools,” J.P. Holyoak, chairman of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, said in a statement reacting to GCI’s report. “It might not be enough to solve all of our schools’ budget problems, but it will help immensely.”

In its report, the GCI says it neither supports nor opposes the effort to …read more

Source:: Weed Feed