Washington Races Colorado for Billions in Pot-Tax Revenue

[Michelle420]

In Washington and Colorado (STOCO1), legalization of marijuana may draw as much as $2.1 billion in revenue for the states from new taxes in five years.

Colorado and Washington are designing frameworks for regulating the cultivation and sale of recreational marijuana. The drug has the potential to provide some much-needed cash to states emerging from the recession, a revenue stream that may not emerge if the feds block recreational pot sales.

Washington (STOWA1) estimates it may collect as much as $2 billion in new taxes over five years. The state faces a projected $900 million budget shortfall for the 2013-2015 biennium, according to a November estimate by its financial management office.
In Colorado (STTLCO), legalization may produce as much as $23 million a year in revenue. A $1.1 billion surplus is projected for fiscal 2013, according to a June 20 estimate by the Colorado Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting.

Washington Races Colorado for Billions in Pot-Tax Revenue - Bloomberg

113TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 499
To decriminalize marijuana at the Federal level, to leave to the States a
power to regulate marijuana that is similar to the power they have
to regulate alcohol, and for other purposes.

A BILL
To decriminalize marijuana at the Federal level, to leave
to the States a power to regulate marijuana that is
similar to the power they have to regulate alcohol, and
for other purposes.
1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
4 "This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2013’’.

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113hr499ih/pdf/BILLS-113hr499ih.pdf