Blame Game Sh*tstorm After Marijuana Special Session Flops

Yesterday, October 3, a special legislative session called by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper in an attempt to fix a gaffe in a new law pertaining to marijuana taxes crashed and burned. What followed was a blame game in which Republicans and Democrats tried to score political points while special districts such as RTD continue to lose thousands of dollars per month.

The centerpiece of this drama is Senate Bill 17-267, which is accessible below. Passed in May, the legislation doesn't immediately appear to have anything to do with cannabis. After all, its title is "Concerning the Sustainability of Rural Colorado," and its purpose, as described in the introduction, "is to ensure and perpetuate the sustainability of rural Colorado by addressing...demographic, economic, and geographical challenges." But the measure also reconfigured rules related to weed, replacing a 2.9 percent tax on recreational marijuana with a special pot tax boost from 10 to 15 percent.

Unfortunately, an error was made in the way the cannabis-related portion of SB 17-267 was written, and the consequences were substantial. "The drafting mistake unintentionally prevented some special districts — the Regional Transportation District and the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District in the Denver metro area, as well as rural transportation districts across the state, a housing district in Summit County and a hospital district in Montezuma County — from collecting revenues on retail marijuana sales," a Colorado House Democrats release points out.

The dollar amounts are significant. RTD is estimated to have lost $560,000 per month since the bill took effect on July 1, with the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District, which includes the Denver Zoo, Denver Art Museum, Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver Center for the Performing Arts and Denver Museum of Nature & Science, being hit for around $56,000 monthly over the same period.

Read more: http://www.westword.com/news/marijuana-special-session-failure-leads-to-colorado-blame-game-9554410